Still Waiting on Your IRS Coronavirus Stimulus Payment? Here's Some Help

Are you still waiting for your stimulus payment due to a recent address change or no or outdated direct deposit information on file with the IRS? You may have to wait a little longer.

Normally, the IRS says you have several ways to notify it about a change in your mailing address. For instance, you can file Form 8822, Change of Address, or send it a written statement with the following information:

Your full name;
Your old address;
Your new address: and
Your Social Security Number (SSN), Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN).

This information should be mailed to the address where you filed your last tax return. It generally takes four to six weeks for the IRS to process the change.

Alternatively, you may can call up the IRS and give them the same basic information over the phone. For security purposes, the IRS may request additional information.

Finally, you can simply wait until you file your tax return reflecting the new address. The IRS will then update your records. If you’ve already filed your return, notify the U.S. Post Office servicing your old address, as well as the IRS as described above, to ensure that any government checks will be forwarded.

But these are not “normal” times. Currently, the IRS isn’t processing change of address forms or answering phone calls with “live” staffers. It encourages taxpayers to do whatever they can online.

This is especially true if you’re eligible for a stimulus payment and haven’t received it. The IRS directs taxpayers to use the Get My Payment portal at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment. (It may help to use ALL CAPS when filling in the form.)

To get started with Get My Payment, you will need your 2019 tax return if you’ve filed it, as well as your 2018 return. Because of high traffic on the site, you may need to wait until it’s your turn to access the tool. If you get an error message, see the next section.

If the IRS has your direct deposit information from a prior return, you should see a page giving you the status of your payment. If it doesn’t and you’re eligible for a stimulus payment, the IRS says you can enter or change your bank account’s routing number and account number to have Uncle Sam deposit the payment in your bank account. But this has proven to be problematic for many taxpayers.

Take the case of Dana Jacobs, a married resident of Parsippany, New Jersey and the owner of a janitorial services company. He hasn’t received his stimulus payment payment because the IRS isn’t accessing his direct deposit information. Jacobs filed a 2018 return, but applied the refund to estimated tax. To his knowledge, his CPA hasn’t filed the couple’s 2019 return yet, although it’s ready to go.

“The site wouldn’t allow me to input my direct deposit information,” said Jacobs. “The screen kept saying that my information didn’t match up. I tried every day for about two weeks. Finally, last week, I was able to enter it.”

Jacobs still isn’t out of the woods. He hasn’t been able to find out where his payment is. “The screen is telling me that the IRS will update the page,” noted Jacobs. The Get My Payment site is updated overnight, so he continues to check on it regularly.

The IRS has already completed a major fix to its Get My Payment tool. It will likely continue to tweak it further within the next few weeks. In the meantime, taxpayers like Jacobs will just have to be patient.