9 Potential Hacks to flee IRS “Payment Status Not Available” Purgatory And Track Your Stimulus Check



The IRS has successfully remitted $207 billion to Americans in 122 million stimulus payments, consistent with the National Taxpayer Advocate. Unfortunately, meaning that 28 million people are waiting to receive critical stimulus funds. The IRS has done a commendable job in delivering money given the size and speed required; however, frustration has been brewing with the “Get My Payments” tool that the IRS launched to assist individuals track the status of their stimulus checks. Many reported receiving a confusing message, “Payment Status Not Available,” with little recourse to troubleshoot.



For those that are still receiving this cryptic message, here are nine tricks which will help. One important caveat is that the IRS has not endorsed any of those hacks, with the exception of the primary . you continue to cannot call or contact the IRS directly.

1) Try Again (No, Really):

Sometimes the only solution is that the best one. As reported in another Forbes article, the IRS made significant enhancements to the web portal since it launched on April 15. during a handout , IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said, “we delivered Get My Payment with new capabilities that didn't exist during any similar relief program, including the power to receive direct deposit information that accelerates payments to many people.” He addressed the enhancements that were made saying they “will help even more taxpayers. We urge people that haven’t received a payment date yet to go to Get My Payment again for the newest information.” If you haven’t checked the portal since it debuted, this is often an honest time to undertake again.

2) TRY TYPING altogether CAPS:

Admittedly, i used to be skeptical of this initially , mainly because the timing of the primary reports (in the always reliable Twitter-sphere) coincided almost perfectly with the tool enhancements that the IRS announced. I suspected this was a 3rd variable problem and individuals mistaking causation for correlation.

For example, when frozen dessert sales rise, murder rates increase too. Does that imply increased frozen dessert consumption causes homicides to extend (or, as portion of a wonderful headline in Slate put it, “will your next cone murder you?”) the solution in fact is not any . there's a 3rd variable that impacts both: heat. Similarly, rather than capital letters causing the IRS tool to figure , it felt because it the 2 were simply correlated; the underlying third variable was the IRS’ enhancements.

However, there's credence to typing in capital letters, mainly thanks to the programing language the IRS uses. Mashable spoke to 3 independent programmers who confirmed that switching from lowercase to uppercase letters could make a difference, with one quoted as saying that typing altogether caps is “a quite common bug in systems that haven't been thoroughly tested.” This hack isn't a panacea as some reported using it unsuccessfully, but it’s certainly worth an attempt .

3) Type Your Address Exactly because it Appears On Your Tax Return:

Some users were surprised to seek out that their address had been captured somewhat differently on their income tax return than what they normally input. once they typed what their income tax return had documented, they successfully logged in. Jessica Roy of the LA Times included an anecdote of this within a compiled list of suggestions she released. She quotes a user who wrote, “on my address i used to be putting Center St and my return simply showed CENTER. Used all caps and no St, and boom! Good to go!”

4) Try Using The US mail (USPS) Lookup Tool:

Congresswoman Susan Wild, includes a suggestion on her coronvirus FAQ page to “verify how your address is formatted with the US mail (USPS) by entering your address within the USPS ZIP Lookup tool, then enter your address into Get My Payment exactly because it appears on file with USPS.”

5) Try Different Variants Of Your Address

Experimenting with different permutations of your address may make a difference for a few individuals; for instance , typing “123 N Main St” rather than “123 North Main St.” Others have found that abbreviating words like street, avenue, and boulevard did the trick. Anecdotally, omitting apartment numbers and only using the road address of the building helped, either alone or in tandem with the all caps trick.

6) Try Adding A Period At the top Of Some Abbreviations

Another potential hack is to feature a period at the top of any abbreviations in your address. rather than writing out “boulevard”, you ought to abbreviate, put altogether caps, and added a period in order that it becomes “BLVD.” Note that this might only apply to some words. Others have reported that when abbreviating cardinal directions - North, West, South East - they needed to go away leave off the amount so as to log in.



7) Try employing a Different Browser

There hasn’t been an evidence on why this works, but it’s a suggestion cited during a few different spots which will be helpful. If you're using an older version of an internet site , it's going to also help to make sure you update to the most recent version.

8) Use the primary Person’s Name On A tax return 

For those how filed a tax return , another suggestion, from the list compiled by Jessica Roy, is to enter only the primary name on the return.

9) Don’t Use Minus Signs Or Parentheses

For anyone which will have a negative adjusted gross income, which is most prevalent for little business owners, try omitting the sign or parenthesis when inputting your 2018 or 2019 adjusted gross income.