Stimulus Check Deadline: What You Need to Do if You Haven’t Gotten Yours Yet

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A major deadline for the coronavirus stimulus check is on the horizon, and you need to be aware of it. If you haven’t received your stimulus check yet, and the IRS doesn’t have your bank information, they need it. The IRS has a “Get My Payment” tool online that you need to submit your bank account info to by Wednesday at noon.

a stimulus check is shown against 100 dollar bills and an american flag
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That’s May 13 – only two days from the time of this writing. Move fast so that you can get your info in before the deadline! Most people are eligible for some $1,200 in relief money, and those with child dependents are given an additional $500 per child on top of that.

Stimulus Check Information

Most people who received their tax returns via direct deposit in 2019 or 2020 have already received their stimulus checks. This is because the IRS already has their information on file, and was able to quickly distribute the funds to them.

People who opted to receive their returns via paper checks often found their stimulus checks coming in the mail much more slowly than those who e-filed their taxes. This was due to the IRS having to manually collect the checks and mail them out physically. This introduced more elements that slowed the distribution of the funds.

If the IRS does not have your bank information by Wednesday at noon, you will be issued a paper check for the money. However, this means it could take months for your check to arrive. The IRS will continue mailing the checks out in waves, planning to do so through September at the latest. As such, it could be four months before some people receive their relief money.

Complications Arise Due to Stimulus

The stimulus checks were aimed at helping families struggling with the impact of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the government has been reeling in the aftermath of lockdown efforts meant to slow the spread of the virus. The stimulus check rollout itself has also been rather complicated, and has not been without complications. Cloud data protection is difficult for an agency as large as the IRS. After all, they deal with the information of millions of Americans.

Notably, some deceased individuals have posthumously received relief money. The IRS released a statement about the situation. “Return the entire payment unless the payment was made to joint filers and one spouse had not died before receipt of the payment, in which case, you only need to return the portion of the payment made on account of the decedent,” the agency stated.