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IRS 'taking immediate steps to redirect stimulus payments' after many claim money went to wrong account

Stimulus check
Posted at 12:07 PM, Jan 08, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-08 19:59:30-05

Since last week, TMJ4 News has received numerous emails from people complaining their second$600 stimulus check went into an account they weren't familiar with.

In some cases, our viewers who filed their 2019 taxes with H & R Block or TurboTax learned via the IRS Get My Payment tracker the money went into a temporary tax preparer account.

Our station reached out to the IRS, and on January 8, a spokesperson sent us the below statement saying, "The IRS and tax industry partners are taking immediate steps to redirect stimulus payments to the correct account for those affected. The IRS anticipates many additional taxpayers will receive payments following this effort."

The news release went on to say, "IRS and Treasury continue to work closely with our partners in the tax and financial industry to do everything possible to get the second round of Economic Impact Payments to the American people as quickly as possible."

The IRS reassured taxpayers if you don't recognize the account number in the Get My Payment tool that doesn't mean it's not an indication of fraud and you don't need to contact the IRS or fill out a Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit.

TMJ4 received a statement from Turbo Tax on January 8 that stated in part, "Unfortunately, because of an IRS error, millions of payments were sent to the wrong accounts and some may not have received their stimulus payment.

Stimulus payments for millions of TurboTax customers affected by the IRS error will be deposited starting today, January 8th.

We have been working tirelessly with the Treasury and IRS to get stimulus payments to our customers.

We know how important these funds are for so many Americans and we regret that an IRS error caused a delay."

Click hereto read the entire news release.

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