If you’re a TurboTax customer still waiting on your stimulus check, there’s a good chance you’ll receive it on Friday, Jan. 8
The company is working with the IRS to fix an error that accidentally held up payments for millions of customers. “We expect most of these payments to be available that day, but banks could take a few business days to process,” TurboTax wrote today.
The second round of stimulus checks from the US government should arrive in the bank account that TurboTax customers used to receive their 2019 tax refunds. To confirm the deposit, the company will send an email to affected customers when the stimulus payment goes through.
It’s not entirely clear what caused the error at the IRS. But earlier this week, TurboTax and H&R Block reported that millions of stimulus checks were being sent to the wrong accounts. (In H&R Block’s case, the company said it nevertheless sent the payment to the method customers selected for their “refund transfer.”)
In a statement on Friday, the IRS said it’s been working with tax-filing services across the industry to fix the problem. “Some recipients who used refund anticipation loans or similar products may have had their payment directed to the temporary bank account established when their 2019 tax return was filed,” the agency added.
The IRS set up a “Get My Payment” tool that allowed people to check whether their stimulus checks had been deposited. But due to the error, the tool was telling some users the stimulus payments had gone to bank accounts they didn’t recognize. If you’ve encountered this problem, the IRS is advising you to monitor your bank account instead.
“The IRS emphasizes that the information taxpayers see in the Get My Payment tool, including account numbers and potential deposit dates, may not display an accurate account number as we continue to work through updates,” the agency said.
“No action is necessary for taxpayers as this work continues; they do not need to call the IRS, their tax provider or their financial institution,” the IRS added.
The agency says it has direct-deposited over 100 million stimulus checks thus far.
