One of my clients just received IRS Notice 1444-B noting they received their Second Economic Impact Payment of $600 by direct deposit. (The notice was dated February 19th, but they received it just this past week.) They wondered why it was $600 when it should be $2,200 (married filing jointly with two dependent children). They checked their bank accounts, and nothing was direct deposited; they checked the IRS’s online “Where’s My Payment” tool and it didn’t show a payment as having been sent. So they called me.
I looked at the notice and saw it was addressed to their ten-year old daughter! No, she didn’t file her own tax return and she definitely shouldn’t be receiving a stimulus payment of any amount. So it appears the IRS has sent out some more erroneous notices related to the stimulus.
My suspicion is that the payment was never sent–just the erroneous notice. Of course, now I’ll have to obtain an account transcript for the daughter just to check. (She doesn’t have a bank account, so who knows where the payment went if it was actually issued.) Just more unnecessary work in a tax year that is basically being defined by unnecessary work for tax professionals.
Tags: 2021.Tax.Season