IRS Website Struggling to Keep up With Stimulus Checks Demands Amid ‘Get My Payment’ Tool

After millions of Americans rushed to check the status of their coronavirus stimulus payments on Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) found itself at the center of a few technical issues. As the agency began to roll out the first wave of coronavirus stimulus checks to banks, the IRS website appeared to experience issues. Some users reported slow load times, while others claimed their payment status wasn’t available — despite the fact that they had filed taxes most recently. The issues came to a head after the IRS launched two new tools: the “Non-Filers: Enter Your Payment Info Here” tool and the “Get My Payment” tool, the latter of which launched early Wednesday.

IRS spokesperson Raphael Tulino said that as of Tuesday, more than 6.2 million people had successfully obtained their payment status, and over 1 million were able to provide their banking information without a hitch for upcoming direct deposits, KFOX-14 reports. As of Thursday morning, the IRS is working on amending issues pertaining to the “Get My Payment” portal, with updates being made available daily.

On Wednesday, Downdetector, a website that tracks real-time issues and outages, reported a large amount of individuals attempting to access the IRS website began experiencing issues at a high volume at around 6 a.m. ET. The first reports, however, began trickling in as early as 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, with more reported problems surpassing 600 as of yesterday morning at 8:50 a.m. ET., a number that held steady in its proceeding hours.

Of the reports, 66 percent related to the website itself, with the remaining 33 percent of incidents having to do with the E-filing process. While an outage map shows the reports coming from all traces of the country, the densest areas of recorded issues are along the east coast.

“Looks like everyone getting same issue. I did not get technical difficulties. I got we can’t determine your eligibility. [What the hell]. I am eligible to pay,” wrote one person of the issues they have encountered. “I guess the system is overwhelmed with people trying. I did not get locked out yet. Only tried three times. Never even made it to where it ask for my bank account information.”

“I know you all feel the same way, but i have to say it.. WHY ARE THEY MAKING THIS SO DIFFICULT AND WE’RE JUST STUCK LIKE THIS? We cant call the IRS, they’re ‘closed’. The website is telling me the page after I enter my bank information is unavailable BUT it still locked me out for 24 hours!!” wrote another person. “I understand it is due to the high traffic, but this is ridiculous.”

Others reported similar issues. Some even claimed that when they attempted to access either of the newly-launched tools, which required basic information such as social security number, full name, address, and date of birth, they were met with messages that say the information does not match the IRS’ records. Some people are also being blocked from attempting to enter their information again for 24 hours.

“After entering requested info into portal, I was also told info doesn’t match what the IRS records show. I entered directly from my tax forms, as well. [What the hell] is going on?!” wrote one person. “First it said 2019 was wrong and do 2018, so I did,and it didn’t match either. Oh, and it booted me out and told me I maxed out my visits to the site and come back tomorrow.”

Wednesday morning also brought outages to a number of banks as Americans went to check their bank accounts to see if their payouts had been deposited. Responding to customers, Fifth Third Bank explained that the outage was “due to high volumes.” As of Thursday morning, there have been only a few reported outages on the IRS website and banks across the U.S. per outage recorder, Downdetector.