The pandemic made 2020 a financially difficult year for many Americans. The federal government released two rounds of stimulus payments to help households catch up on their bills and put more money into an ailing economy. Unfortunately, millions of people saw massive delays in getting this relief due to stimulus check errors. Fortunately, tools like ModernTax can help ensure that this type of failure never happens again.

What Happened with Stimulus Checks?

Stimulus check errors usually occurred for one of these reasons:

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) didn’t have any bank account information on file.
• The bank account on file had been closed.
• The payment was sent to the incorrect bank account.
  

Stimulus payments sent to the wrong place usually landed in a temporary account opened by a tax preparer to process tax refund loans or other transactions. The government came up with a solution to address the mistake. Unfortunately, the fix isn’t a quick one for many taxpayers.

Ultimately, some people won’t receive their money via direct deposit or check. Instead, they’ll need to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2020 taxes to get their stimulus funds. That means they must wait even longer to see much-needed relief.

How ModernTax Can Help

ModernTax is a new Application Programming Interface (API) that can help consumers get any future relief funds faster. The sophisticated tool assists banks in accessing new or corrected account numbers directly through IRS transcript data. Then, stimulus payments can be accurately processed and disbursed via direct deposit or automated clearing house (ACH).

The end result? Taxpayers won’t have to deal with the stress and frustration of waiting for their money. The API can also help them track other IRS-related information, such as tax refunds due or tax debt owed.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, the pandemic isn’t over, so it’s impossible to predict what will come in the future. But, there’s serious talk of a third round of stimulus payments being issued in the near term. ModernTax is here to help banks help consumers weather the storm - and get the money they need as quickly and painlessly as possible.  

Financial institutions - have you looked into ModernTax yet?