If you're one of those people who gets a tax refund every year via direct deposit, this article isn't for you. Your StimBux™ either dropped into your account or will be in your account shortly if you are eligible to receive them.
For those of us who don't have direct deposit for whatever reason, the IRS helpfully set up a website where you could enter a change of address or direct deposit information, but by the time the West Coast woke up it was inundated and offering this message:
The wait was not terribly long, maybe 15 minutes or so, and then there was an invitation to enter an "official U.S. Government site" where a short form was served asking for Social Security number, date of birth and street address.
I was a little bit annoyed at this point that I had to give that information when all I wanted to do was give bank information for direct deposit (I wrote a check to the IRS last year after the tax scam passed). I was okay giving the info but I wanted it to be in connection with me giving my direct deposit information. Still, I did the thing.
Aaaaaand, I got the message you see in the screen shot at the top of the page. Just a random, generic error message that suggests they don't know I sent them a big fat check last year to pay my (MUCH INCREASED) taxes for 2018. We haven't filed 2019 and don't plan to do it until next month now that we have until July 15th.
What gives, IRS? Should we all start squawking like the wingers did when healthcare.gov crashed and burned on day one?
11Alive.com reports:
It may be frustrating, but the good news is you don't appear to be alone.
"Anyone else getting this msg when checking for stimulus funds? Payment Status Not Available According to information that we have on file, we cannot determine your eligibility for a payment at this time," one Twitter user wrote. "@IRS I have filed every single year, up to and including 2018."
11Alive has reached out to the Treasury Department for a statement explaining why so many appear to be receiving the message.
(Update: A Treasury representative has replied twice to our inquiry, but has yet to directly address whether there are people seeing the message in error or not.)
Wait, what??? Treasury won't directly address whether the message is in error? Here, let me help them with that. Here's the URL of the error I got:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a page entitled "error-generic" suggests that the site is choking and our data is never reaching the database. Let's hope it's not being sucked up by hackers, too.
Yes, it's frustrating, but I'm sure it's temporary. With 60 million filers receiving their stimulus payments today, things should clear out enough for the rest of us to get our direct deposit information in there too, so we can enjoy some of those yummy StimBux™ too.
That is, if they're not confiscated for debts.
UPDATE:
Here's what happens to people who actually manage to get in:
So there’s no stimulus check in my bank account. I went to the IRS website to see what’s up. Put in my info and they said I qualify for a payment but they need my banking info. WTF? They have my info and direct deposited my last refund (I double checked).
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) April 15, 2020
SO - I go to the next screen where is tells me to enter my bank account info and my adjusted gross income.
I think I entered my AGI wrong — now it tells me I have accessed the system too many times and need to come back in 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/aM4fGftpzl— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) April 15, 2020
Oh. That's not good. And it wasn't just him.
UPDATE 2: Thursday morning I'm locked out for 24 hours after they said I either accessed the site too many times or my data wasn't accurate. The data is fine. Their website is screwed up. Plain and simple.
