Where's my stimulus payment (tax rebate)?

The IRS recently posted a new interactive worksheet on its Web site, "Where's My Stimulus Payment?" It's intended to help taxpayers determine the status of their stimulus payment: how much it is, when it should arrive, and how it will be delivered. You only need three pieces of information to use it: the Social Security number of the first person listed on the tax return, filing status (single, married filing jointly, etc.), and the number of exemptions claimed on the return.

You are welcome to try it, but don't be surprised if you end up frustrated. The IRS interactive indeed told how much my husband and I, who filed separately, would receive of the basic stimulus payment by this Friday. But didn't explain why we wouldn't get credit for our 14-year-old daughter, whom my husband claimed as a dependent.

Several colleagues and commenters on this blog tried the system and got the equivalent of no answer at all. One got the response, "We are sorry but we cannot tell you the status of your Stimulus payment." Another got, "We are sorry. Specific information about your Stimulus payment is not available."

In fact, it appears that "Where's My Stimulus Payment" is only useful when the payment is nearly in your hands. As it told one colleague, "Specific information about your Stimulus Payment will not be available until about one week before your payment is scheduled to be issued. " An IRS spokesman told me basically the same thing.

A lot of good that does.

In the mean time, check the IRS's rebate payment schedule, which may be able to tell you the week in which you can expect your rebate.

And if you received your rebate and disagree with the amount or don't understand why you got what you got, call the Refund Hotline at 1-866-234-2942 and wait for a human being. An IRS representative wasn't able to help me because I didn't have certain information at hand, but perhaps you'll be luckier.

--Tobie Stanger

Comments

[Ryanne Hoel]

I was wondering why I never got my rebate even though I filed my taxes and got my return in feb and I did direct deposit and I was suppose to have my rebate on friday the 9th but I never got it. Does it take 2 weeks to possible get that rebate??

[maureen]

My ssn ends with 78. The stimulus tool shows they have no information about my rebate although I filed early with direct deposit. I should receive the rebate by Friday. Does the government do anything right?

[Brandy]

I paid my taxes using EFT to the IRS in April. My SSN ends in 43. Will I receive a paper check or Direct Deposit? I haven't received anything yet.

[maureen]

I posted yesterday about the stimulus tool not showing a payment had been scheduled. This morning, I found it has been scheduled for 5/16. The tool posts much closer to the payment date than the IRS states. It is less than a week.

If the payment does not show up, I will report here.

[BRENDA]

MY FRIEND WENT THRU TURBO TAX AND GOT HER DIRECT DEPOSIT THRU SANTA BARBRA..SAME AS ME.SHE GOT HER MONEY DIRECT DEPOSITED ON THE DATE THE IRS POSTED. I FILED MY TAXES BEFORE HER AND GOT MY REFUND BEFORE HER TOO AND I STILL HAVE NOTHING. WHAT'S THE DEAl? I FEEL LIKE THE IRS SHOULDN'T POST INFORMATION IF THEY CAN'T STICK TO IT...YEAH RIGHT, LIKE THAT'S GONNA HAPPEN!

[diana]

we were supposed to get ours on the 9th. Still nothing. We filed on line at taxact.com will we still get a direct deposit like our refund was????

[BRENDA]

I just found out thru Santa Barbra that they did not receive the stimulus payments from the IRS and that the refunds would be sent via mail. This really bites because the IRS should tell eveyone that if this was the case, then you would receive via regular mail instead of us waiting around like idiots. The thing is, my co-worker says she used Turbo Tax and that Santa Barbra also sent her 2007 refund. She's already received her stimulus rebate. Go figure!

[Brenda]

I got an e-mail from Santa Barbra Bank who sent me my 07 IRS refund via Turbo Tax. They told me that the IRS wasn't using them for the stimulus rebates. She told me that I would be getting my refund via regular mail. My co worker used Turbo Tax as well and Santa Barbra Bank issued her 07 refund as well. I am so irritated that although we used the same site, she was able to obtain her refund on the date that was issued by the IRS and I wasn't and I think a number of people as well are suffering the same problems.

[Robin]

I filed taxes the first week of Feb. and got our refund direct deposited into our account. No fees were taken out etc but the tax people. By the chart online our rebate check should be direct deposited by May 16, but my status says, they will issue a check on May 23. Why would they issue me a check, when they HAVE my direct deposit info and have refunded my money that way?
So confused. May 23 does not follow any chart they have out there based on either of our social security numbers.

[TONYA]

I NEED A LITTLE HELP, I QUALIFY FOR THE STIMULUS PAYMENT SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE I HAVENT RECEIVED IT YET. I WENT THROUGH H&R BLOCK, I DIDNT USE A RAC OR RAL I WAITED AND HAD MY MONEY DEPOSITED BY THE IRS DIRECTLY INTO MY BANK ACCOUNT, I WAS TO RECEIVE MONEY ON MAY 9TH AND STILL NO STIMULUS.WHEN I GO TO THE IRS WEBSITE IT TELLS ME THAT IT HAS NO SPECIFIC INFORMATION REGARDING MY PAYMENT AT THIS TIME. DOES ANYONE THINK THAT MAYBE I WILL GET A PAPER CHECK? I ALSO NEVER RECEIVED THE SECOND LETTER THAT EVERYONE IS WRITING ABOUT EITHER.

[nadia]

Based on their scheduled, for doing direct deposit and filing on February 1rst.. and the last two numbers of my SSN, I should have received my rebate by no later than May 9th. The tool tells me it cannot tell me any information and I still have not received it.

[angie in mansfield]

I too have not recieved my stimulus deposit. I filed with H&R Block and had my refund direct deposited back in February. As far as I know I qualify and it should be deposited in the same manner as my refund got deposited. I din't owe any tax in 2007 and there shouldn't be any reason I didn't get my rebate. My last 2 numbers are 27. Has anybody had theirs deposited later than the 9th that were due on the 9th? I hope they are just overwhelmed with the amount of money being sent out and it's just taking longer than anticipated.

[Coco]

I checked my status Monday and told me that I should have my rebate by May 16th my last two digits of my SSN# is 76 and it is for $1,200 two childern I will be patient but I will not get excited until it shows up and it also stated to give it up to 21st of May if it is not in the bank then; then to give them a call when ever it get to me I will use it well pay some bills and spend a little bit. They should have given us the same amount of what are regular return was that would stimulate the people to spend more but hey can't complain:)

[angie in mansfield]

My daughter's SS ends in 79 and she got her direct deposit tonite using the same bank that I do. Her's wasn't due till next week and mine was the 9th and still nothing. At least she got something...it was 300 less than expected because she is a single mom. So maybe my waiting for a paper check is better anyway. This is all screwy in my opinion.

[PAMELA26]

my last two r 85...when i call the hotline they tell me that i will receive mine by mail on the 23rd of may,which suppose to be in my account on the 16th of may.... i received my refund direct depo and i'm wondering why am receiving a check in the mail...and on top of that we are not receiving the amount we are suppose to receive...all this SUCKS

[Janet]

our money was suposed to be in the account on the 9th and here it is the 14 th where is it i thunk bush money was shrubed

[Coco]

This message is for Angie In Mansfield you stated that your daughter got her's last night in the bank what bank is that I'm with Bank of America and my last SSN is 76 and your daughter is just a little larger than mine just 4 digits off from mines hope to here back from you because I'm still waiting but they told me to give it up till May 21st.

[Brandon]

What else can you expect, 1st off it is taxpayer money they are giving back, if the government can do ANYTHING it is the ability to completly cloud and fog over any information it gives out. Please just remember this the next time you think the government should handle your healthcare! or the government is the answer... they are the problem.

[Mel]

We never got ours. My husband and I filed jointly and we were supposed to get our direct deposit on May 9th. We filed with tax turbo online and did our taxes ourselves, we owed no money. We did have the online turbo tax fee taken out of our refund...Is this why we have not received anything? We get the "Were sorry there is no information" when we try to get info from IRS.

[Sarah]

We did not get a refund from the IRS, we owed. We paid by EFT from our checking account on 4/14. My husband's soc says we should have received our payment on 5/9. Because we owed taxes and did not get a refund, does anyone know if that makes us get a paper check instead? We get the no info available on the website and our accountant has not been able to get any info for us, either. Any insight appreciated....

[Tobie Stanger (Consumer Reports)]

Sarah,

The IRS says that in order for people who owed taxes to get direct deposit, they would have had to fill out the direct-deposit portion of their tax forms. I doubt many people who owed thought to do that, so most will get their money in the mail. Arranging for EFT of the money owed apparently isn't the same as arranging for direct deposit. So expect a mailed check.

[Jim]

I was supposed to receive my stimulus payment on the 9th, checked the IRS website and they say they deposited the money into my account on the 2nd, and yet I still haven't received anything yet.

[Pat C]

My son and I were both supposed to receive our rebates direct deposit on the 9th. Neither of us got them. (what a shock as like everyone it was counted on) I used the calculator on the irs web site and it said my rebate should be 1018 but again like everyone NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE! GOD BLESS THE GOVERNMENT FOR ALL THEIR HARD WORK! (you might think people were counting on you to send them MUCH NEEDED MONEY)
So where is my refund? I can't seem to find out. As far as calling and talking to a real person? YEA RIGHT! like that's going to happen.. I spen 2 hours on hold before i gave up.
PS I USED TAX ACT AS WELL WITH DIRECT DEPOSIT RECD MY FED REFUND early FEB! so what's the problem?

[Andrea]

I too have been having issues with the Tool Calculater on the IRS website. For the past 3 weeks I've been checking to see when ours would be scheduled to be deposited and always got the "no info. available" message. This week, I got this message:

"We are sorry but we cannot tell you the status of your Stimulus payment.
Please mention reference number 1646 to the IRS Customer Service Representative."

So I called today and after sitting on hold for 20 minutes actually got to speak to someone. She said that the 1646 reference number means she needs to do a case analysis. She asked for all the information like name, SSN, birthdates of us both, our addy and phone #, and then asked me to hold for 4 or 5 minutes while she researches.

She got back on the phone and said, "Apparantly you owed taxes from the 2006 year", to which I broke in and said, "Which we paid IMMEDIATELY back on March 21st, the minute we got the notification that those taxes were owed" (there was an error in our 2006 tax preparation).

She said, "Yes, I see that right here. Apparantly, while our system DID accept your payment, it for some reason didn't allow it to be posted correctly to your account. So when we processed your stimulus payment, it actually debited the amount of $$ that you owed from your stimulus payment".

Isn't that FANTASTIC????? Not only did I pay the amount owed for our 2006 taxes that we owed, but they ALSO took my stimulus payment.

And now the kicker... it will take them about 6 to 8 weeks to process and correct their mistake... and THEN I will be mailed out a check. NICE OF THEM!!!!

[Carolyn]

Has Anyone received a paper check yet? My dad's last 2 digits of his SS# are 10; but no sign of a check yet and the IRS 'Where's my Stimulus?' site gives 'Sorry, no info...' blah blah blah!