IRS Portal, What to Do If You Already Filed, and More

IRS Portal, What to Do If You Already Filed, and More

It is Friday, April 10, and here I am with my daily stimulus update.

If you’d rather watch than read, check out the YouTube version here!

1. IRS Portal

This morning the IRS dropped its long-awaited portal for non-filers to submit their information to the IRS in order to receive an economic stimulus payment.

I made a video explaining and walking you through that portal.  You can view it here.

Similar to the TurboTax portal that rolled out this past Saturday — and I made a walkthrough video of that one as well — this portal is filing a simple 2019 tax return for you.

This portal is for non-filers to communicate your information to the IRS.

For more specifics as well as a walkthrough, go watch the video I made specifically on the IRS portal.

2. What If You Just Need to Update Your Direct Deposit Information

Now, what if you have already filed your 2018 and/or 2019 tax return, but your direct deposit information was not on there?  This means that either you did not receive a refund or you received a refund but you received a paper check refund or your refund was direct deposited to an account other than where you want your stimulus money to go.

In this case, the IRS has said that they are releasing a “Get My Payment tool,” and they have said that it should be available for use by April 17.

You can use this tool to provide your bank account information to the IRS so you can receive your payment more quickly rather than waiting for a paper check.

The IRS caveats this and says that this feature will be unavailable if your stimulus payment has already been scheduled for delivery.

In this Get My Payment tool, you can also see the status of your payment as well as the date your payment is scheduled to be deposited into your bank account or mailed to you.

That is all the details they provide at this time, and I will be sure to update you if anything changes.

3. Fraud of the Day

This doesn’t necessarily have to do with the stimulus payments per se, but I thought this merited attention.

The Federal Trade Commission said this week that some scammers are posing as organizations to help older and disabled Americans pick up groceries, prescriptions, and other supplies.

The older or disabled American gives the supposed errand-running service their money, and the scammer walks away with their money, never to return.

If this is you, don’t trust someone you don’t know.  I know not everybody has family around, but ask a trusted friend or neighbor.

Don’t be too proud to ask for help right now.

They will be glad to go to the store for you and drop the groceries in front of your door so you don’t have to make contact and all that.

You can also check out the Eldercare Locator, which is a public service of the United States Administration on Aging, which can connect you to services for older adults.

4. Stimulus Timing

So it’s clear by now that stimulus payments are not arriving this week.

Yesterday Vice President Pence said late next week, and the IRS officially said in an email to me and other tax professionals this morning that they will arrive next week for those who filed a 2018 and/or 2019 tax return with direct deposit information on it.

They also said that individuals who receive Social Security retirement or disability benefits, SSDI, or who receive Railroad Retirement benefits but did not file a return for 2019 or 2018 will automatically receive a payment in the near future.

This all appears to be consistent with the stimulus timeline I laid out two days ago based on statements by Secretary Mnuchin and Representative Dingell.

5. Unemployment

The Extra $600

For those who file for unemployment with claim weeks March 29 through July 31, the CARES Act provides for an additional federally-funded $600 per week in unemployment benefits on top of the regular unemployment benefits they would get in any other time.

I was thrilled to hear this week that many states like Alabama and Michigan and Massachusetts and more have rolled out this extra $600 per week on top of their state unemployment benefits and many others like California and Missouri and more are expected to roll this out next week.

Considering that today is only the two-week anniversary of the CARES Act passing, I have to say bravo to these state agencies for working out the kinks in the system to make this happen.

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)

Now, before I move on from the topic of unemployment, I want to talk about the other unemployment-related component of the stimulus, which is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA.

This is the part of the stimulus that extends unemployment benefits eligibility to self-employed workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and part-time workers because of course typically these groups — as non-employees — do not qualify for unemployment.

But the CARES Act is making them eligible due to the pandemic.

Unfortunately some states are moving a bit slower to roll out this piece of the unemployment legislation.

I don’t have time to research every state, but I do look into the most populous ones, and California, for example, isn’t ready for the self-employed to file unemployment claims yet.

But on the other hand, New York appears to have opened the doors for the self-employed to apply now, but of course its unemployment website seems to crash on a regular basis due to the number of individuals filing a claim.

6. IRS No Longer Processing Paper Returns

It has been speculated and yesterday the IRS confirmed that they are not currently able to process individual paper tax returns.

So if you need to file your tax return quickly, you should e-file it.

7. I’ll Say It Again: Adult Dependents Do Not Get a Stimulus Under CARES Act

I know a lot of you know this, and I’ve talked about this several times, but over and over I’m seeing in the comments on my YouTube channel people telling me their life story — including the fact that they are claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return — and then they ask me if they’re eligible for a stimulus.

The answer is no, you do not get a stimulus check under this original CARES Act that was signed, but of course this could be different in future stimulus packages.

The All Dependents Count Act was proposed by various senators, but I haven’t heard any movement concerning it lately.

8. Giving Away Part of Your Stimulus?

A group of teachers in San Francisco have pledged to donate part of their stimulus payments to undocumented immigrants who don’t qualify for the CARES Act.

I’m sure everybody has an opinion on undocumented immigrants, but this is these teachers’ money, and they can do whatever they want with it.

And let me say that you should not feel any obligation whatsoever to donate any portion of your stimulus check.

I know for most of you, you need every penny of it, but if you’re in the .01% that doesn’t really need this money right now, consider looking around you — not necessarily just at undocumented immigrants, that’s not the point — just look to see who’s in need and consider helping them out during this difficult season.

This could be a family member, a friend, or really anyone.

Let’s help each other out right now.

9. The Fed’s $2.3 Trillion in Loans

What did the Federal Reserve do yesterday?

They announced their plans to provide $2.3 trillion in loans to support businesses and the government.

So let’s break down this $2.3 trillion of loans, beginning with the $600 billion Main Street Loan program

This is aimed at businesses that may be too large to qualify for the SBA Paycheck Protection Program loans.

By the way, if you’re an independent contractor or self-employed, you are now eligible to apply for a PPP loan, as of today, April 10, and you’d better hurry.  That program is running out of money.  Republicans wanted an additional $250 billion infusion, but it got blocked yesterday in the Senate.

Now these loans that the Fed is talking about yesterday — these Main Street Loans — are not forgivable loans.  You’ll have to pay them back, but nevertheless, they are sorely needed right now.

These are 4-year term loans for businesses up to 10,000 employees.

That’s way bigger than the SBA threshold of 500 employees.  So while SBA is serving the true mom-and-pop small businesses of America, these Main Street Loan programs are for companies up to 10,000 employees, and the loan amounts are from $1 million to $25 million with payments deferred for one year.

The loans will be disbursed through eligible banks, but the Fed is going to buy 95% of the loans, leaving banks with only 5%.

Also part of the Fed’s $2.3 trillion is $500 billion in loans to state and local governments and $850 billion to extend credit lines for households and businesses.

Of course I’m keeping an eye on this and will include any new development in future updates.

10. Has Anybody Actually Received Their EIDL Grant Yet?

Speaking of small business, have any of you business owners gotten your “up to” $10,000 EIDL grant? I haven’t.  But let me know in the comments if you have!