IRS stimulus checks update: software glitch sends payments to foreign workers

Distribution of the stimulus checks has been controversial.

First, there was the rocky roll out of the IRS website which put a lot of stress and worry on people who were not allowed to view payment status and set up direct deposit.

While millions of people have now been able to confirm payments and receive them, there still are millions of individuals (20 million+) out there who have not received payments and are not sure what to do.

There have been other controversies along the way like deceased individuals receiving payments and paper checks reportedly getting delayed for questionable reasons.

Well, one of the latest mistakes is that the IRS has sent thousands of foreign workers stimulus checks by mistake.

This reportedly happened due to a software glitch where college age workers were getting $1200 checks sent to their accounts. Many had been students who previously studied in the US.

Tax expert Donna Kepley stated the mistake “was likely caused by temporary workers filing taxes using E-File or other systems meant for US citizens instead of using other forms.”

These workers are apparently awaiting guidance from the IRS on what to do with the funds although reportedly some have already spent their checks. Others are worried about hurting their odds of getting a visa and so they are being more conservative.

In a way, I try to cut the IRS a lot of slack.

They were responsible for sending out millions of checks in a very short amount of time and they even admitted that they would be sacrificing accuracy in order to get things done quickly.

I do wish that their online system worked better because I have seen hundreds of reports of people having issues with the site such as when they enter in their personal information and are told that there is no match.

Hopefully, as we go into this next week, we will get more details about a possible second stimulus round of funding.

Personally, I am starting to believe that a second full-on round will not happen.

The President has hinted that he is not crazy about offering that and with quite a few states starting to open things up, I’m not super confident that it will be offered.

Or if it is offered, it may come in a different type of form or to a subset of people. 

Either way, I will be providing updates on the possible second round of stimulus checks so be sure to stay tuned in and if you were not subscribed to click the bell in the bottom right corner of the website so that you don’t miss out on updates.

H/T