How I Finally Got Past ‘Payment Status Not Available.’

This a quickie update in reference to the post I wrote the other day that described my struggles getting information on the Stimulus Check. No matter how hard I tried, or how often I refreshed the IRS.gov website. I continued to get the error message, ‘Payment Status Not Available.’

I suspected that it was related to my taxes—and I assumed our accountant was in the middle of processing them. Turned out this was true. She finished them yesterday, I signed the documents via eDoc online, and low and behold I was able to get into the Get My Payment page of the IRS website.

Once inside, I could see it is a relatively simple form that asks for your AGI (adjusted gross income), the amount you owe or the refund you received. Then it asks for your bank routing number and account number. So GREAT!

Except, it found some inaccuracy—possibly our 2019 taxes were still moving along the pipeline. But, I did get a second message asking that I submit our 2018 tax information. Well, I didn’t have our 2018 taxe information because I’d given it to the accountant. And they’re very busy. And I didn’t want to bug them. I only needed two pieces of information–the AGI for that year and our refund amount, which had actually been rolled over to pay for our 2019 taxes.

So, earlier in the week, I had taken a little bit of time to ‘View my Account.‘ This is an option on the IRS.gov website that allows you to look at your previous payments and other IRS information. You have to set up a password and log in your basic information, address, name, social security number. I opened up the account in the hopes that I would not have to try to get through to my accountant and add to her workload. Inside your account there is an option to get a transcript. This is were you need to go. Right now, the only option is to view your transcript online. Luckily, my AGI was right there. I didn’t have to look for my refund amount because I had previously received an email from my old accountant that specified the amount.

With both bits of information in hand, I went back into Get My Payment and typed in the new numbers.

But, there was still a problem with the numbers and I could not proceed. UGH.

I tried a couple of more times as if the website would just give up because I was hounding it and then, it locked me out.

Of course.

Okay, so today I gave it a fresh start. Same answer. It asked for 2018 and then said that that did not match their information.

I thought about it for a minute. Then, in the section that asked the amount of my refund/payment, I put ‘0.’

Yes, zero.

I realized that, technically, we did not receive a refund because we rolled the money into the next year. So, literally we did not pay or get anything back.

Zero.

Suddenly, it came to life and said the money would be deposited to my checking account.

I stared at that sentence and the exit button below it, (which is, ironically, the same blue as the Get My Payment button) somewhat afraid to move.

But, then, I did, I pressed ‘Exit.’

I’ll keep you posted.

~~~Andrea