I thought I was all set to be one of the 80 million people getting a direct deposit stimulus check this week. I already filed my taxes in 2019 and in both 2018 and 2019 I got my tax refund direct deposited into my main checking account. In fact, I already got my 2019 tax refund direct deposited earlier this week. So I was all set to go!
Except I’m not.
Wednesday I checked my account. No new funds. Thursday, no funds. Friday, no funds. I used the “get my payment” tool on the Irs website and got the message “Payment Status Not Available.” Then I went to the FAQ’s. I definitely qualify, I have a social security number, I have filed my taxes already and then...what’s this about “you used a tax filing service”?
The past two years I have used Turbo Tax. The cost of filing my state taxes and the fees they charged for processing were overpriced but I am lazy and don’t want the headache of figuring things out. I finished my taxes in under 30 minutes and got my refund in just over a week. So I figured it was worth it. But, since I paid my fees out of my refund money, they created a temporary account where the funds went first. They then take the fees out and deposited the remainder in my own account. Once that process is completed, the temporary account is deleted and they apparently never send the IRS your own account information.
So the IRS has deposited my stimulus check in an account that does not exist. When I contacted Turbo Tax they explained that once the IRS realizes the account doesn’t exist they should send me a letter and then mail me a paper check. So...someday I’ll get a check. I asked if I could update the IRS website with my account for direct deposit and they said not until my status changes again from “Payment Status Not Available” to something else.
This apparently is also happening to people who used H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and many other tax filing services. That’s literally millions of people who will have payments delayed unnecessarily if anyone had some forethought on this. Or maybe the administration just wants to make sure I get my check with Donald J. Trump’s name on it.
I am fortunate. I still have a job until at least the end of the fiscal year because my nonprofit is largely government funded. Of course with the gaping hole in state and county budgets, who knows what happens July 1? But I know there are lots of other people out there who are currently unemployed and struggling. Not making rent. In line for food banks. A delay of weeks at minimum and maybe months is horrible on both the individual level and on the national economic level. A stimulus doesn’t do shit if it doesn’t actually get out to the people.