IRS makes enhancements to coronavirus rebate web tool

The Treasury Department and IRS have announced enhancements to a web tool that people can use to check the status of their coronavirus relief payment.

The enhancements to the “Get My Payment” tool come after many taxpayers experienced challenges in using the application.

The Get My Payment tool, launched earlier this month, allows people to look up the status of their payment and submit their direct deposit information to the IRS so that they can receive their payment faster. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that millions of people have been successfully able to use the tool. But some taxpayers have expressed frustrations with the tool, reporting that they have had difficulty inputting their information or had received a message from the tool that their payment status was not available. 

A Treasury spokeswoman said that the new enhancements to the app include status updates in cases where payments were sent to closed bank accounts and greater access to the app for people who have filed their 2018 tax returns but not their 2019 tax returns and did not use direct deposit to receive a refund.

The web tool also now allows taxpayers to enter an amount of zero into the app if they neither received a refund nor owed the IRS money when they filed their most recent tax return, the spokeswoman said.

“Treasury and the IRS have made substantial enhancements to the ‘Get My Payment’ app to ensure more Americans can get their money fast and track its delivery,” Mnuchin said in a news release Sunday. “This Administration has already delivered over 88 million payments in less than three weeks, with millions more on their way. We encourage people who still need to input their information or want to track their payment to use the app.”