IRS Improves ‘Get My Payment’ Tool
Users can now enter direct deposit info; a Spanish version will follow in a few weeks.
The Internal Revenue Service made significant enhancements to its “Get My Payment” online tool to provide an improved and “smoother experience” for Americans eligible to receive Economic Impact Payments, it said.
The enhancements, which started last week and continued through the weekend, adjusted several features of the online tool, including the addition of the ability for taxpayers to enter their direct deposit information, the IRS said.
The IRS didn’t specify any of the additional enhancements in its announcement and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Get My Payment launched April 15, but Twitter was quickly filled with complaints that it wasn’t providing any information at all to many U.S. taxpayers, apparently aside from at least some of those who had received tax rebates via direct deposit in the past two years.
Taxpayers who had filed their most recent tax returns digitally and had received refunds via direct deposit were the first ones to receive Economic Impact Payments because they were made via direct deposit. Those who did not, including those who had filed their most recent tax returns digitally but did not get refunds via direct deposit, were expected to get their checks by mail at a later date.
However, the new ability for taxpayers to enter their direct deposit information via Get My Payment stands to speed up the process, unless their check was already sent out by mail.
ThinkAdvisor was able to add direct deposit information easily with the online tool over the weekend. However, the tool was still unable to estimate when payment would become available as of Tuesday. Instead, a message stated: “You are eligible for the payment. Once we have your payment date, we will update this page. We will deposit your payment to the bank account below.”
The enhancements to Get My Payment “will help millions of additional taxpayers with new or expanded information and access to adding direct deposit information,” the IRS said.
“We delivered Get My Payment with new capabilities that did not exist during any similar relief program, including the ability to receive direct deposit information that accelerates payments to millions of people,” according to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “These further enhancements will help even more taxpayers,” he said in a statement, adding: “We urge people who haven’t received a payment date yet to visit Get My Payment again for the latest information. IRS teams worked long hours to deliver Get My Payment in record time, and we will continue to make improvements to help Americans.”
Planned next is a Spanish version of Get My Payment that will follow “in a few weeks,” the IRS said.
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