Posted By katie allison granju
After several folks called the WBIR newsroom to say they were not getting their checks direct-deposited when the IRS said they would get them, we did a little checking and discovered an unfortunate glitch in the way the rebate distribution is being handled that’s going to affect a lot of folks - most of whom had no idea this would happen until the money didn’t show up in their accounts on the appointed date.
Taxpayers and tax preparers are discovering that anyone who elected to have tax preparation fees deducted from their tax refund will not receive rebate checks via direct deposit.
Those who filed their taxes using a software program or service that subtracted a fee directly from the refund will have to wait for their rebate check to arrive in the mail.
The IRS originally announced that those who had tax refunds direct-deposited into their bank accounts would receive rebate checks in the same fashion.
However, once taxpayers who should have received rebate checks via direct deposit this week started asking questions, the IRS discovered an unanticipated complication.
UPDATE: Randy Neal says that on reflection, he thinks the IRS is handling this exactly as it should.
65 Comments to 'Newsflash: you may not get that stimulus rebate check direct-deposited into your account after all'
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I owed taxes, and they were taken out of my account on April 14th.
My SSN ends in 15.
I haven’t gotten my stimulus bribe yet either - I’m wondering if, since I owed instead of got a rebate, I’ll have to wait for a paper check.
The irs.gov website didn’t seem to mention this… it seems they expect everyone to get a refund or something.
FYI - I filed with Turbotax in April, and just got my stimulus rebate directly deposited yesterday, with no problems. I’d already gotten my refund directly deposited about 1 week ago (in record time).
My ssn ends in the 55-65 range, so it’s earlier than I expected.
Got mine today- direct deposit
The IRS is probably doing the right thing here:
http://www.knoxviews.com/node/7863
I did Turbox Tax in March, and I got my welfare check this morning.
Another “had to pay” victim here. My SSN ends 70. No check. Yet.
Jeff, I’m in the same boat — owed taxes, but had it auto-drafted from my account on April 14. The [url="http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=182735,00.html"IRS FAQ page[/url] says that folks like us will get the payoff “If you are not expecting a regular tax refund, your stimulus payment generally should arrive a minimum of six weeks after you file.”
Ha. So, those of us who just had to fork over a large chunk of change can afford to wait longer than those who already got some back.
Same as the other two guys. I owed just under $60 bucks. I had it taken directly out of my bank account. My SS ends in 10. Nothing so far. I went to the IRS site and buried somewhere there, it does say you have to wait 6 weeks after filing before you get the rebate. I did my taxes 4/15. I would have been happier to get my rebate by subtracting it from my taxes.
I got my taxes done at H&R Block. I payed them right then and there and also did direct deposit and so far it’s not showing up in my account. I will cross my fingers it goes in at midnight.
I just called my bank and they informed me that i could receive it anywhere from the 9th to the 16th. They just start sending them the 9th for people getting them on that day.
The IRS website does say something about if you owe, you will receive a paper check.
Pffft. This problem and the IRS solution was known long, long ago - at least at the tax prep firm where I do seasonal tax work. We were told very early in the game that If your refund is processed through a third-party bank account (say, for deduction of tax prep fees) and then the remainder direct-deposited to your own bank account, the IRS (who is well aware of this market and has a long, long list of the bank account numbers used for such) will send you a paper check via snail mail.
I had my taxes done but paid them out of my own pocket (not deducted from my refund). We should have received it last week and we’re still waiting.
Look what i found, on the the IRS website they have something called Wheres my Refund and they tell you when your suppose to get it. They said May 14th for me. Thats 5 days late but better late than never.
https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/IRServlet?app=IRACTC
We still have not gotten ours….but when it comes to our government I should not be suprised….
ss 3 ending in 63, and still no rebate check as promised on the 9th.
my ss # ends in 24 and still no check should have known it wouldn’t be on time
Mine ends in 32. I got my refund direct deposited in march but the irs says my stimulus will come as paper check!! WTF. And, I did not deduct Turbo Tax fees from my refund.
I paid TurboTax fees through direct deposit, but I did not have it taken out of my refund because I did not receive a refund (I owed almost $1400). I would’ve gotten direct deposit on 5/9, but nothing came. Am I getting a paper check too? It really is a pain to try and decipher the rules here.
I was suppose to get my check in the mail on 5/16. They sent me a letter that I should expect my payment in the mail on that date two days prior. The governement is backwards than us,but when you listen to the automated sytem when you call it says i should expect the check 2 weeks from the date 5/16 and the paper they sent in the mail says i should exect the check 6 weeks from this notice. WTF!!!!!!!
This is not true for all. Some people who filed their taxes using a tax preparation program and had had fees deducted, did get their rebate via direct deposit. I on the other hand, seems to be one of the people who will have to wait to recieve it in the mail according to the IRS.
Same here. Filed TaxCut. IRS got my $1131 in additional taxes back in March. Paid directly from checking account, not a paper check. SS ends in 57. Supposed to get 5-9-2008. Nothing yet. Good old Government efficiency.
I filed in Feb 08 and owed $50 which the IRS took from my bank account the following day. Was to get the payment 5/16 based on my SSN … why would they send me a paper check if they had my account information? I did my taxes myself and filed electronically using Tax Cut software.
i filled my taxes e file on feb 13th. i did not owe anything to state or federal. i was suppose to get my refund on may 16th and did not get anything. does anyone have an answer for me?????
Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one. I filed in Jan. and was suppose to get my stimulus check by or no later than the 16th of may and I have received nothing! Whats the hold up?
Need answers!
Leave it to the big brother people to screw this up as well.
Filled taxes in april at a local tax provider. Im not sure if it was taxed or not. Got my refund direct deposit in full. SS ends in 81. Was supposed to recieve stimulus on 16th of may direct deposit. No check yet, its almost june. hmmm any hope for me.
I have just given up on the whole thing. I was supposed to have my check direct deposited on may 9th, and of course it was not there. It is now may 20th, and still no word, no letter, the IRS site provides no information on me, so i just chalked it up to if I get it good, if I don’t oh well. That’s our government for you. The thing that is aggravating though is at work half of us recieved it on time and the other half have not. The least they IRS could do is issue a statement, they know many people were looking forward to it.
I’m frustrated too, one of my best friend’s has the same two last digits as I. We both filed at the same time and did not do DD. We are scheduled to get ours around the the 27th of June. Guess what? She got hers Saturday. WTF? I’m totally convinced the IRS does not know what is going on either-it makes no sense!!
I called the IRS number and entered my information, including my ssn. I was informed that there was no information to provide when or if I would receive money. I also filed using Turbo Tax, paid for my fees with a credit card and did direct deposit. Mine was due on May 9th. Nothing. I have given up hope that it will ever come.
It is a problem everywhere. I am actually writing from Texas but wanted to hear if others around the country were having the same problems- hence me finding this board. Although we are grateful to be getting them, we are human after all- and when people that are not supposed to be getting checks yet are, and those who should have by now are still waiting for them, it raises alot of questions and of course, concerns. It’s certainly not regional, my friends on the East Coast are dealing with this too. I don’t think they are going by the social numbers anymore, that’s obvious!!
Because of the mess up with the direct deposit, I now may end up homeless. Had I know when I did my taxes to not have the fee deducted from my rebate then I wouldnt have went that route. Thanks to the lack of information I know have no idea when I will get this paper check but when/if I do it will be to late.
I e-filed with Turbo Tax, i owed taxes that were taken directly out of my account (2 days after filing), they sure are quick to take your money. I was expecting my money by May 9th “no such luck”, i can’t track it on the irs website either, all it states is that there is no specific information regarding your stimulus payment, i called the IRS today and found out that because i owed taxes i have to wait 6-8 weeks before i will receive my payment, so basically the payments being deposited according to the last two digits of your social is BS!
I read everybody’s comments and sure enough I’m in the same boat as well. I believe this whole thing was screwed up from the beginning. I personally don’t think they were fully prepared to send these payments out to everyone on time (so they say). I filed in the middle of January and received my refund direct deposit with no problems. My SSN ends in the 90’s and was scheduled to receive my payment on 5-16 and just as I thought -no payment direct deposit or thru mail. The website and hotline is all contradicting were both don’t provide much info. My advice to you all -DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR IT, It’ll get here……..whenever it gets here!
I think I was the first poster - we did get a nice letter from the IRS last week telling us to expect our check by the 23rd, and if it does not come after 6 weeks, please call the number in the letter. At the risk of flooding the IRS with queries, the number is 1-866-234-2942.
I was supposed to receive my rations on the last day. I filed my taxes using Tax Act. I checked my bank but nothing. Can’t help but feel like the carrot dangling in front of the horse…we’ll do anything at this point.
Bottom line, our irs.gov made an oops on.us
I called the following number 1800/829-1040. If you call, follow the stimulus prompt. you will only get 2 options but don’t choose either… by pass the prompt by pushing 00000 several times. you will be placed in a que but will eventually talk with a live person. They will ask you to verify your personal information. They will tell you when to expect your paper carrot. It’s not much but it bugs the heck out of them to have to answer the same type of calls all day long…I know, I work for a
brickwall.gov agency
trusted like a fool social 77 expected on 16th nothing wrote checks that bounced WTF……..270.13 overdraft fees mad as hell
fed-up2:
Yep, you’re a fool. Writing checks on money that isn’t in the account yet is the sort of behavior that caused the economic tumble.
Lesson learned I suppose.
We used Jackson-Hewitt for our preparer and we weren’t told of any other way to have our fees paid than to have it held out of our refund. I wish we would have been informed better. We did our taxes around the first of Feb. and had our refund direct deposited into checking and still have not got our rebate check. Not even a letter stating we will receive one. Last two digits of SSN are 78, which I know is high number. Oh well, hope we will receive one before long. Has anyone received a direct deposit who had their fees deducted from their tax refund? Just wondering!!
Here I sit broken heart on the 23rd, waiting and waiting and waiting. I was “supposed” to have it direct deposited on May 2nd, and two weeks later, according to the IRS letter I received, was to receive it the 23rd. I am not even sure why the IRS waste some much time and money sending out a letter to something that did not even occur. I have checked the website for the schedule, and if it does not arrive by June 20th, 2008 call this number. They should accept the same if we owe, if you can send it by June 20th instead of Midnight April 15th…..
I did mine on turbo tax in April, paid what I owed with a credit card right then. My ssc ends in 53 and should have received it by now but have nothing yet.
I thought the stimulus would be here by now. Shouldn’t have counted on that.
Does anyone know how long the mail takes, or is there a way to know if it has been mailed?? In Missouri.
still waiting here too…. in South Carolina
my last 2 digits end in 04 I received a letter on 5/12 from IRS stating my check will be mailed on 5/16 and here it is 5/24 still no check.
called IRS and asked them to pull up my ssn and see what date they show when my check was mailed which was again 5/16, then she replied if not received in 10business days they will then need to put a trace on the check….., this is like waiting on a welfare check.
Mine ends in 04, owed taxes (prepared myself), mailed in a check, and they were taken out from my account within a few days. According to the schedule, my check was supposed to be in the mail no later than May 16… which I thought should have arrived within a week, but nothing yet. I tried the status website, and it says “we are sorry. specific information about your stimulus payment is not available.” I’m not sure if I should interpret this as it hasn’t been sent out yet? Kind of frustrating. Six weeks past the day the money was taken from my account is approaching next week. If I don’t have the check by then, I’m going to be worried.
The Funny thing is that people are counting on this money (using it for bills they owe) instead of being happy at that they are getting it at all. That is the problem with a lot of the people in this country. Spend Within Your Means! Credit cards aren’t gifts!
Listen guys, you all sound a bit ungrateful. The government is actually giving something away so I guess we should just shut up and wait. Oh and Let’s NOT spend it before we even get it!!!!!Many people are not getting what they think they are…so I here.
Snail mail~ is all we have to count on!
Q. I chose direct debit to pay my tax bill. Will my stimulus payment be direct deposited to the same account?
A. No, the account information used for an incoming direct debit payment to the IRS cannot be used as the account information for the direct deposit of the stimulus payment. People who choose direct debit to pay a balance due will receive their stimulus payments by paper check through the mail. [Updated 3/3/08
This is from the irs.gov website. so basically, they could take money out of your account to pay your taxes, but can’t deposit it back in, even with your account number.
In case anyone is curious, check arrived yesterday…. 2 mail days late, but that’s nothing in the long run.
My adult daughter and I both filed using taxcut. I payed the fee with a checkcard and she paid by taking it out her refund. We both used direct deposit. I got my rebate earlier than expected and she has not received hers. I guess she will have to wait for a paper check.
I also used Turbo Tax, recieved a refund and then opted to pay the Softwares EFile fee out of it. It is extremely helpful to know that I may still get a check…thanx.
I filed 4/13 thru h&r and got my refund already. They said with ss 78 I would get a direct deposit for the stimulus by May 16th–Well, it’s not here yet!! I will just wait patiently. It hasn’t been spent yet, by the way, but I have many ideas…..
THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE! I was not informed at all that by having my fees subtracted would change my rebate from direct deposit to snail mail. I’m glad i found this article, because a coworker & i have been stressing over it for weeks! His #s are 83 & mine are 92!!! Looks like we’ll still be waiting awhile– with my husband out of work for most of the Spring due to all the tornados & rain & bad weather we’ve had here in AR– that check would be extremely helpful– hopefully the mortgage company can wait as long as i’ve been waiting! sad to say– but we need that $$– and are so thankful that it is EVENTUALLY coming– just pray that it will arrive quickly & before actions have been taken that would be detrimental to us– i know there are many others out there in similar situations– and- we’re NOT spend above our means, but the paychecks aren’t as big compared to the debts now because of this horrible economy! Many financial blessing to you all!
I haven’t gotten my check and we filed using turbo tax back in Feb and didn’t owe anything. Does anyone know how to contact A PERSON at the IRS because I obviously should have gotten it through direct deposit
I filed head of household w/2 dependents and opted for the direct deposit. I filed through Jackson Hewitt in March and they told me the fees would be deducted from refund. My ss ends in 32. Still waiting after all this time.
If you had your tax filing/preparation fees deducted from your refund, YOU WILL BE RECEIVING A PAPER CHECK. Due to the fact that the IRS deposited your refund into your tax preparer’s bank account- the fees were then deducted, and the remaining balance was sent to your bank from the tax preparer’s bank.
Because of that, the IRS will not have your bank account information, and will be mailing you a paper check.
I was told by an IRS rep. that people should allow 5-7 days from the scheduled issue date BEFORE expecting to see it in their mailbox.
Hope that helps…our ssn ends with 31, so it should have gone out today….I’ll let you guys know when it shows up so you have some kind of reference for how long it takes.
I think the gov does not know what he is doing yeah many of you don’t need the money but there are some of us that work harder then ever and still can not make it dued to gas and food prices. So please don’t judge some who are mad and need it. What I don’t understand is my sister filed her tax late and received her rebate check before me and I filed mine in early january what’s up with that.
I was just curious as to what was going on with these paper checks. We were supposed to get ours no later than June 6th. We e-filed with a local tax preparer. I wrote him a check and paid for his fees before I left his office so no fees were deducted from my refund. We didn’t do any kind of loan thing against it. We opted to have the check mailed to us so I know that this stimulus refund was going to be coming by mail but we haven’t seen it.
My husband’s last 2 digits on his social are 28 and we received a letter from the IRS stating that it would be sent no later than June 6th but on the back of that it had a section where it said something about Under Review. Under that section it says this “Your stimulus payment has been delayed for review. If you do not receive your stimulus payment or a notice explaining the delay within 60 days, call us at ……” What the heck does that mean? We file the same every year…..same number of kids…..they told us exactly what we were getting and that is what it should be….I don’t understand why it could be under review. Did anyone else have that on their letter from the IRS?
I also have heard that they are behind on getting out the regular tax refunds and that until they get those out and done they aren’t doing any of the stimulus stuff. Has anyone else heard that? I was wondering if that was why mine was under review to give them more time.
Just curious as to what other people might be going thru with theirs.
I filed along with a friend her last to numbers are 23 and mine are 96 we both opt for direct deposit and she got hers on may 9th into her account and all of them are to be finished with direct deposit as i understand so where is mine, this is not right, if we owe them we will be harassed forever but if they are to pay us we have to wait and wait, is there anyone who has last 2 numbers high 90’s that has not got direct deposit and what is the 411 i hear about debit cards now instead of checks or direct deposit. PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE ME SOME INFO.
I am getting concerned. I owed about a grand and I filed on time. I filed a paper copy and the check was cashed by uncle sam, so I know they received it. It is now June 14 and no stimulus check. My last two are 03!!!
Suggestions for who I shoulod contacyt??
I had to pay Taxes this year and I had the IRS Direct Debit what I owed from my bank. Now I find out that because I made it EASIER for the IRS to take my money (they grabbed it within a couple days of filing) they wont Direct Deposit my Stimulus Check Read Below From the IRS Web Site:
Q. I chose direct debit to pay my tax bill. Will my stimulus payment be direct deposited to the same account?
A. No, the account information used for an incoming direct debit payment to the IRS cannot be used as the account information for the direct deposit of the stimulus payment. People who choose direct debit to pay a balance due will receive their stimulus payments by paper check through the mail. [Updated 3/3/08]
I work hard and I would like to know why I only got 433.00 explain that .If your any kind of people.Ill get a responce. Ruth I. Richards
Still waitng on my Stimulas check by mail according to the last two digits of my ssn# 33 check was mailed out on June 6th. But then I get a letter in the mail that say I should receive it by the 20th of June and of coures no check. So waiting to see if it will come in the on sat June 21st. Time will tell,
I too had the Under review on my letter. Tried to call to see what was going on and I keep getting a recording that says due to the high volume of callers I will need to call back later or on the next business day. I have gotten the same message 3 days in a row. Plus the amount that I was supossed to get is lower then their website says I should get. I don’t know why it under review, or if possibly all the letters say that on them.