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How to check the status of your coronavirus stimulus payment online

Published Apr 15th, 2020 11:52AM EDT
Coronavirus stimulus check
Image: ERIK S LESSER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

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  • On Wednesday, the IRS launched an online “Get My Payment” tool that allows American tax filers to track the status of their coronavirus stimulus payment.
  • The “Get My Payment” tool also allows users to confirm how they will be receiving their payment and provide bank details so that the IRS knows where to deposit the money.
  • The status of your coronavirus stimulus payment will be updated no more than once a day.
  • Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

On Wednesday morning, the Internal Revenue Service launched a tool on its website that gives Americans who filed their taxes this year or last the ability to check in on the status of their Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act stimulus payments. In addition to letting you see the status of your payment, the “Get My Payment” tool also lets you confirm the type of payment you will be receiving (check or direct deposit) and enter your bank account information for direct deposit if the IRS doesn’t have the details it needs to deposit your money.

Here’s the warning you’ll see when you access the Get My Payment tool on the IRS website:

Use of this system constitutes consent to monitoring, interception, recording, reading, copying or capturing by authorized personnel of all activities. There is no right to privacy in this system. Unauthorized use of this system is prohibited and subject to criminal and civil penalties, including all penalties applicable to willful unauthorized access (UNAX) or inspection of taxpayer records.

Once you access the tool, you will need to input your Social Security number, date of birth, street address, and zip or postal code. You will learn whether or not you are eligible for the CARES Act stimulus payment and asked to provide details pertaining to your tax return and bank account, such as your adjusted gross income, your refund amount (or the amount you owed), your routing number, and your bank account number.

If you want to complete this process as quickly as possible, be sure to have everything listed above on hand. Despite the fact that I filed my 2019 taxes weeks ago, and have already received my refund, I was still asked to provide all of this information and more, so even if you’re confident the IRS has your direct deposit information already, it wouldn’t hurt to go through the process if you haven’t received your stimulus payment yet.

It’s also worth noting that in the process of writing this article, I attempted to access the Get My Payment tool multiple times, and frequently ended up either in a queue or on a maintenance page informing me that my request could not be completed. Understandably, the site is likely to be swamped right now and for the next few days.

Once I did get through after providing the IRS with everything it asked of me, there was a message notifying me that I was indeed eligible for the payment, and it let me know that the status page will be updated when a payment date has been decided. Also, updates to the page will be made no more than once a day.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.