April 17 Stimulus Update

Stimulus Update 4/17/20

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

Alright, let’s collectively mourn the state of the stimulus because it is in an absolute state of disarray for many people.

If you’ve already gotten yours, great, but for those of you who haven’t, you know exactly what I’m talking about: people getting incorrect stimulus amounts, stimulus being deposited into the wrong account, parents not getting the $500 for their children, dead people getting stimulus payments but we the living not getting ours, etc.

And of course many users of H&R Block, TurboTax, Jackson Hewitt and other tax preparation software or services are not getting their stimulus direct deposit because if they paid their tax prep fee out of their refund or got a refund advance on one of these companies’ debit cards for a fee, and then what happens is there’s a temporary bank account that the IRS actually deposits the refund to, and the TurboTax or whoever takes their fee out of that account, and then the balance remaining gets loaded up on the debit card.

So the IRS never actually had the taxpayer’s real direct deposit information on file because the IRS transmitted the funds to a temporary holding account and then TurboTax or whoever actually transmitted the money to the taxpayer’s bank account.

It’s like, didn’t you guys think of this before? I mean, I know they were aware of the issue, TurboTax and H&R Block and others had FAQ sections on their website addressing this very issue, but all it said was, “We’re waiting to hear back from the IRS”.

So it’s not like no one thought of this, it’s that the IRS knew this was going to be an issue, but they just didn’t care enough to do anything about it.

Of course, if you’re in that situation, the IRS says that you should try to use the Get My Payment tool to input your bank information, and I know that tool is a joke, I know it doesn’t work for many of you, but hopefully they will fix it, get rid of that B.S. “Payment Status Not Available” error, so you can input your information.

And if you get that “Payment Status Not Available” error, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not getting a stimulus check, if you qualify, meaning that your income is under the threshold amounts we’ve talked about in several videos, and no one can claim you as a dependent, you are eligible for a stimulus payment.

This “Payment Status Not Available” message can mean many things, and only one of those things means you’re not eligible for a stimulus, so don’t freak out, you can review my video yesterday where I tell you all the things that this message could possibly mean.

For example, the Get My Payment Tool has not yet been updated for Social Security recipients. So if you’re on Social Security, don’t be scared because you’re getting this message on the Get My Payment tool, this is just the IRS being the IRS.

But I think the question we’re all asking is why. Why is this happening? Why is this all such a disaster?

Now, of course, like I mentioned yesterday, the IRS has objectively had a lot to do in a relatively short amount of time, there’s no question about that, but still with the things that we’ve seen go on in the past couple days, with the TurboTax thing, and the stimulus payments being wrong or non-existent for many people even for those who are the “easy case”, those who filed their 2019 return with direct deposit information, and with this Get My Payment tool and just the massive confusion it’s causing because it is not effectively communicating the situation to users and it’s freaking everybody out, for these things, there’s really no excuse.

So what is going on here?

Well, commenter Kim gives us a clue, and thank you for this information, Kim.

She tells us that based on her own experience working at the IRS that 80% of employees there are alcoholics or mentally ill.

Now, Kim, I don’t know who you are or if you actually worked at the IRS, but based on the American public’s collective experience this week with the IRS, the clues are definitely there.

And I mean, think about it, if this is true, now they’re working from home in their pajamas, day drinking, and if this is true, that’s who we’re dealing with here, these would be the people who are in charge of getting you your money and who are the individuals behind this inane Get My Payment tool and its nonsensical “Payment Status Not Available” error.

I mean, the clues are there, I don’t know if it’s 80%, but I’m just saying the clues are there.

Do you know what the official name, I’ve been calling it the IRS tool or IRS portal for non-filers because the real name is so bad, do you know what the official name for the portal where non-filers can input their information is?

The one that I did a walkthrough for last Friday when it rolled out?

It’s literally called, this is the actual name of the tool, it’s called the “Non-Filers: Enter Your Payment Info Here” tool.

What? That’s like calling Gmail the “Computer Users: Read and Respond to Emails Here Tool”, see what I mean? Who comes up with that?

I mean, would any of you, in a sober state, name a tool like that?

I mean, like call it the “Tool for Non-Filers” or the “Non-Filers Application” or something, not the “Non-Filers: Enter Your Payment Info Here” application, that is incredibly confusing, and you have to know that this is the federal government, so the name of this thing probably went through at least, and Kim please let me know if I’m wrong here, but at least five layers of review, and they all thought this disaster of a name was perfectly fine.

And now we know, thanks to Kim, possibly, it’s because they were sloshed or loopy.

At least four out of five of them, per Kim, and the fifth one could probably care less.

I’m seeing a lot of the same questions in the comments, so rather than responding to every single one as a comment, I made a list of the top 10.

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In other news, of course, the SBA Paycheck Protection Program is out of money.

So if you’re a business owner, you probably already know this, but keep applying, there’s obviously the big fight right now, Republicans want more money for this, Democrats don’t or at least not without their conditions met, so, hang tight.