Something I missed was an article in the Washington Post giving details of mailing stimulus payments. The Motley Fool took it and laid out the dates that stimulus payments will be mailed. I note those dates below.
But there’s another issue: Let’s say your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is $55,000 and you haven’t filed your return. You file it on May 1st. Will you get your stimulus check the week of May 29th (assuming you don’t use direct deposit)? Probably not. (The IRS will be mailing checks out for that AGI range that week.)
The issue here is it takes time for both a tax return to get into the IRS computer system and for the IRS to mail a check. First, it takes four weeks (on average) for a return to post into the IRS computer system from date of filing. Second, it takes two weeks (on average) for the IRS to issue a check. That is, if the IRS hits a button to issue you a check today, you would receive that check in two weeks.
So let’s look at the mailing dates:
- AGI of $10,000 or less: Week ending April 24
- AGI of $10,000 to $20,000: Week ending May 1
- AGI of $20,000 to $30,000: Week ending May 8
- AGI of $30,000 to $40,000: Week ending May 15
- AGI of $40,000 to $50,000: Week ending May 22
- AGI of $50,000 to $60,000: Week ending May 29
- AGI of $60,000 to $70,000: Week ending June 5
- AGI of $70,000 to $80,000: Week ending June 12
- AGI of $80,000 to $90,000: Week ending June 19
- AGI of $90,000 to $100,000: Week ending June 26
- AGI of $100,000 to $110,000: Week ending July 3
- AGI of $110,000 to $120,000: Week ending July 10
- AGI of $120,000 to $130,000: Week ending July 17
- AGI of $130,000 to $140,000: Week ending July 24
- AGI of $140,000 to $150,000: Week ending July 31
- AGI of $150,000 to $160,000: Week ending August 7
- AGI of $160,000 to $170,000: Week ending August 14
- AGI of $170,000 to $180,000: Week ending August 21
- AGI of $180,000 to $190,000: Week ending August 28
- AGI of $190,000 to $198,000: Week ending September 4
- All other checks: Week ending September 11
So let’s say you did not have a 2018 filing requirement, and you file your 2019 return with an AGI of $65,000 and owe tax; your check would be issued the week ending June 12. But let’s say you file your return on June 13th; in that case, your check would be issued at the end (the week of September 11th).
We believe that if you are “missed” by the IRS you can use the IRS’s Get My Payment tool after your return is filed to convert your check to a direct deposit.
A key point is that these are the dates of mailing, not the date your check is generated. So you need to subtract two weeks for the date the check is generated. You also need to subtract four weeks for the date a return gets into the IRS computer system. So for a check to be issued the week of June 12th, a return needs to be in the system six weeks earlier, or by the week of May 1st. Now, I am making assumptions based on my knowledge of how the IRS works but I believe them to be accurate.
What this means is that now is the time to file tax returns if you want your stimulus payment. The IRS saying the sooner the better is correct.
Tags: 2020.Tax.Season