The Internal Revenue Service has set another deadline for those still waiting on their individual stimulus checks. The fastest way for the IRS and Treasury Department to get taxpayers their stimulus payments is via direct deposit. Recipients have until Wednesday to update their account information on the Get My Payment portal on IRS.gov.
A press release from the IRS on Monday indicated that the plan to begin preparing to send paper checks will begin at noon ET on Wednesday. Anyone who misses the direct deposit deadline may have to end up waiting for a paper check, which are expected to begin arriving in late May and well into June. The plan is to mail out 5 million each day once things are underway.
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This is the latest in a string of deadlines, though those that were announced prior typically involved specific subsets of non-filing U.S. citizens. Those deadlines didn’t impact the core $1,200 payment, though it may have impacted the ability of some to collect the $500 per dependent. IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told Forbes back in April that they “want to ‘Plus $500’ these recipients with children so they can get their maximum Economic Impact Payment of $1,200 plus $500 for each eligible child as quickly as possible.”
“They’ll get $1,200 automatically, but they need to act quickly and register at IRS.gov to get the extra $500 per child added to their payment,” Rettig continued. “These groups don’t normally have a return filing obligation and may not realize they qualify for a larger payment. We’re asking people and organizations throughout the country to share this information widely and help the IRS with the Plus $500 Push.”
The payments themselves come as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, aimed at helping to keep both businesses and people afloat amid weeks of quarantining in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus. However, there have been no shortage of problems with the payments. Namely, payments aren’t arriving or are showing up in the wrong account.
To make matters worse, the IRS currently isn’t staffed enough to offer phone support, meaning the Get My Payment tool is the only option. This has led to its own set of problems, from an influx of traffic crashing the website to those who are still unable to track their stimulus payment.
