The CARES act, or HR748, that was passed into law provides for every legal citizen and taxpayer who has filed a tax return in 2019 or 2018 a cash payment of $1200. If you have gotten a refund in 2019 or 2018 then the IRS has your direct deposit info and you will get a direct deposit of the money in your bank account. If you have OWED money for 2018 AND 2019 then the IRS does NOT have your direct deposit info and you will have to enter it on their website. In a very different section of the HR748 the 1200 is non-taxable, i.e. there is a $1200 credit for your 2020 tax return.
You will do this through the IRS website here: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment
You will need the following information:
- Your social security number.
- Your Adjusted Gross Income from either your 2018 or 2019 tax return. Give the IRS 8 weeks to process your return for 2019. If it has been less than 8 weeks since you filed your 2019 return, use your 2018 return.
- Your refund or payment amount from the return you used.
If you have had to make payments for both 2018 and 2019 you will need to enter your banking information into the web page. For that you will need this additional information:
- SSN
- Bank routing number, found on the bottom of your check.
- Bank account number, as displayed on the bottom of your check.
The IRS page looks like this at the time this article was written. There is no mention of the CARES act or HR748 but this is what the page looks like. A search on the web can is also provided, click here.
Scroll down the page a bit and click the blue button “Get my payment” and then enter your information to first look up to see if the IRS has your direct deposit info. If it does not have your info, the second step is to enter your banking information as described above.
EDIT: After I posted this I realized I don’t get refunds from the IRS, not in the past 2 tax years. So I entered my information on the website and got my refund about 10 days later. For those of you who don’t understand the US government, 10 days is s SUPER fast response. Normally something like this takes 8-10 weeks.
