Americans overseas are encountering glitches with the IRS’s Get My Payment tool for rebates issued as part of the emergency coronavirus relief spending.
In an April 24 letter to the IRS and Treasury, American Citizens Abroad (ACA) notes that many individuals have received error messages from the tool when they input a foreign address, name, and Social Security number. Further, it is unclear how identity verification, tied to U.S. indicia, will work for those individuals.
“It's hard to know where the problem lies, as so few have been able to get through the registration process from start to finish,” ACA Executive Director Marylouise Serrato said in an April 24 release.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136) provides economic impact payments of up to $1,200 per taxpayer, with an additional $500 for dependents, mostly distributed based on 2018 or 2019 tax return information.
The Get My Payment tool was launched April 15 to allow users to track their rebates and provide bank information to the IRS for direct deposit.
Problems with the tool have already been documented for taxpayers who recently moved or changed bank accounts, and those who filed a return in 2018 but not 2019.
In its letter, the ACA recommends that the IRS and Treasury begin a public awareness campaign for citizens abroad who did not file a return in 2018 or 2019 to inform them that they can file a simplified “all-zeros return” with their direct deposit information.
That wouldn't solve the problems experienced by those without a U.S. financial account, however. The ACA recommends those individuals open a State Department Federal Credit Union account.
“ACA believes that a means for delivering recovery rebates/payments to Americans overseas, including those who in the past did not need to file a return as well as those who do not have a U.S. financial account, must be developed and made available as soon as possible,” the letter states. “Everyone recognizes that relying upon paper checks that are mailed to locations outside the United States must be avoided if humanly possible.”