Taxes

How to Track Your Stimulus Payment Before It Arrives

Since the government announced in late March that millions of Americans would be receiving stimulus checks to combat the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, The Banklady has received a ton of questions about the forthcoming payments.

Everyone is asking: “When will I get my money?” Though the answer to that question will vary from person to person, there are some things you can do to track your payment before it comes.

How to Know When You Will Get Your Stimulus Money From the Government

The first wave of payments hit taxpayers’ bank accounts on April 11, according to a tweet from the IRS.

If you have yet to receive any money and are anxious to know when it might arrive, help may be on the way. The Treasury and IRS have said they will be launching a “Get My Payment” app at IRS.gov sometime this week. In order to track the status of your money, you will need to enter your:

Social Security Number
Date of birth
Mailing address

If you want to take matters into your own hands, there are a couple of things you can do, depending on whether you expect to receive your money electronically or via a check in the mail.

If You Expect to Receive Your Stimulus Money Electronically

If you are eligible for stimulus money and you have your banking account information on file with the IRS, you can likely set up an alert with your bank that will let you know when the cash hits your account.

To do this, log into your account on your banking institution’s website or app and look for an option to manage alerts. It may look something like this:

Look specifically for “Deposit Alerts” or even “Direct Deposit Alerts” and elect to be notified via email, text message or push notification to your phone. The options may vary depending on the bank or credit union, but most should allow you to do something similar.

By setting up an alert, you’ll be sure to know your stimulus money is available the moment it is deposited into your account.

If You Expect to Receive Your Stimulus Money Via the Mail

If you don’t have direct deposit set up with the IRS, you should be expecting your payment to be issued by mail.

If you do have to wait for a paper check to arrive via the mail, you can be alerted before it’s delivered by signing up for USPS Informed Delivery.

When you opt into Informed Delivery, you’ll receive daily emails in the morning with scans of all first-class mail that will be delivered to your address later that day. You can sign up for Informed Delivery here.

Using Informed Delivery will let you know that your check was supposed to arrive even if you don’t find it in your mailbox — whether it was misdelivered or stolen. If you don’t get your check, you can follow up with the postal service or the IRS.

For security reasons, the IRS also plans to mail a letter to your last known address within 15 days after the payment is sent. It will provide information on how the payment was made and how to file a report if you don’t get your payment.

If you are unsure that you’re getting a legitimate letter, the IRS urges you to visit IRS.gov to protect yourself from scam artists. Scam artists have been sending out emails and making phone calls so beware and do not give out any information to someone that calls you randomly.

Government To Mail Out $1,200 Checks To Most Americans; Unemployment Expansion #Stimulus

The US Senate agreed to a bipartisan $2 trillion stimulus deal. It’s expected to eventually get through the House and be enacted in coming days.

$1,200 Checks

The part that people are most interested in that the government will mailing out checks of $1,200 to most Americans.

Each individual (non-dependent) gets $1,200; couples get $2,400 (total); plus $500 per child. For example, a couple with two children will get a $3,400 check in the mail.
Even those who don’t make money and those on Social Security will get these checks.
The only exception is those who earn more than $99,000 per year ($198,000 for a couple) who will not get anything.
There’s a phase-out from $75,000 – $99,999 ($150,000 – $198,000 for couples) where you’ll get a smaller check.
Payment is based on your prior tax return (2018 or 2019), but if you make too much in 2020 they money will be clawed back, I believe.

Unemployment Benefits

Another big component is the expansion of unemployment benefits. The increased benefits include:

Provides enhanced unemployment benefits for 4 months. This increases your unemployment check by $600/week, on top of what the state regularly gives, for 4 months.
Extends unemployment 13 weeks longer than usual rules. Regular is 26 weeks, I think, so now it would be 39 weeks. (This kicks in back from January 27.)
Extends unemployment to self-employed workers as well. That would include gig workers like Uber drivers.
Extends unemployment to furloughed employees as well. The added goal here is that businesses should not fire employees, instead leave them on as furloughed.

Small Business Loans

This fund is for loans of up to $10M to companies of 500 employees or fewer. Businesses who pledge to keep their workers can take a loan from the government, with the eventual forgiveness of the loan if they continue to pay their employees. I’m sketchy on the details here, but it sounds like you can get forgiveness on the loan for 8 weeks worth of payroll, mortgage interest, and rent costs.

$2T List

Here’s a partial break-down of the $2 trillion, as best as I could find:

$250B for direct payments/checks to individuals and families. (see above)
$367B for small business loans. (see above)
$250B to boost unemployment insurance benefits. (see above)
$500B in loans for distressed companies. $75B of this is earmarked for airlines and travel.
$130B in funding for hospitals and medical equipment.
$150B in funding for state and local governments.

Taxes

Payroll taxes for 2020 can be deferred.
When are taxes due in 2020? IRS tax–filing extension explained. The IRS says individuals and businesses can delay filing and paying federal tax bills for 90 days, to July 15 from April 15, as part of an emergency relief plan amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Tax Day Tips

My favorite day of the year. April 15th… only if you are into torture. You know the day the Uncle Sam a.k.a. grim reaper shows up at your door and takes half of all the money you have worked hard to earn so he can fund things such as the the War in Iraq, bailouts of failing mega-corporations, and many other items of government money well spent.

Whether you are starring at the computer trying to get your Quicken downloaded into your TurboTax or if you are just trying to get yourself to sleep because your taxes are due just think of the fact America does tax less than most other countries. Even though it does not seem like it. And know it will be worse next year so enjoy it while it lasts.

I did find some interesting reading on the IRS website today when a friend asked me a question about his medical deduction. He asked me why the IRS sent him a letter telling him his medical deductions had been reversed from 2006. We found that TurboTax did not catch an error. You have to deduct only amount that is more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income or it will be reversed.

If you have a OPEN from American Express Card you can use OfficialPayments.com/OPEN or Pay1040.com/OPEN to make your IRS Payments. This is a convenient way to pay online with your credit card but it can add another “tax” in a fee that can add up to thousands. The best way is just to pay by check and avoid all the surcharges. Discover Card now offers a business credit card with checks with no fees that would be handy for IRS payments to use as an alternative but its too late to apply for that unless you are planning for your quarterly payments.

If you don’t already know about eftps.gov, you set up an account (takes 15 days to get set up and get docs in the mail), but once you are in, you can send the IRS a payment anytime you want to. You can select which form to attach to the payment (1040 ES, etc). I typically send a payment every month and at the end of the year you can see all these credits that the IRS holds. The site is free and no processing charge.