 internal revenue service IRS tax news IRS provides revised answers that's a tongue twister right there people give that one a shot IRS provides revised answers move on over Peter Piper with your pickled pepper picking we have a new tongue tying Titan in any case IRS provides revised answers for 2020 recovery rebate credit on tracing payments IR 2022-24 February 2nd 2022 Washington the internal revenue service today updated it's frequently asked questions the FAQs on 2020 recovery rebate credit fs 2022-08 there's a link to that here this updated FAQ frequently asked question includes a revision to the information on tracing payments under topic F finding the first and second economic impact payments amounts to calculate the 2020 recovery rebate credit question 8 topic F update these FAQs are being issued to provide general information to taxpayers and tax professionals as expeditiously as possible more information about reliance is available there's a link to that here more information on the recovery rebate credit is available on irs.gov there's a link to that here as well irs FAQs so I'm just going to link on over here and see what they say with that FAQ this is f8 missing economic impact payment how do I request a payment trace to track my first and second economic impact payments updated February 2nd 2022 so remember with the with the economic impact payments you got basically three of them that we are looking into the first two were tied to the 2020 tax return and therefore if there were any problems with them you would need to remedy that typically with the recovery rebate credit at this point in time by filing the 2020 tax return and then the third one is going to be tied to the 2021 tax year if there were any problems with it then the remedy would generally be to file the 2021 tax return filing for the recovery rebate credit for the third payment of course in order to do that you need to verify what kind of stimulus payments were actually received so you might need to get that information if you don't know what that information is from the irs to make sure that you're reporting the items properly as you go forward so here we go a 8 you should only request a payment trace to track your payment if your online account shows a first or second payment was issued to you and you have not received it so in other words you can generally look on your account for example to see if the economic impact payments have going out you can basically log in to the irs portal and try to track the payments that went out but obviously the payments that went out on the irs's side are tracking the payments that they believe that they sent out now at some point in time if the payment didn't actually get to you if they sent like a paper check or something like that and the recipient didn't receive it then they should be able to figure that out at some point in time but it's possible that they sent the payment but it was never received or there could be fraud that took place and basically the payment went to somebody other than the participant through it should have gone to now in that event then of course there's kind of a problem because if you record that you didn't receive the payment on the tax return it's not going to it's not going to match what the irs is saying because they're going to say we sent the the payment in the tax return and so obviously there's going to be have to be some way to work out those kind of issues as they come up so it says do not request so once again it says here you should only request a payment to trace to track your payment if your online account shows a first and second payment was issued to you and you have not received it so if they say if you're looking and they say you shouldn't be requesting the track in other word generally just to see if the payment went out because you can basically look that up on your portal you're basically want to look at it if they say that they sent it out and you're saying you didn't receive it then you might the next step is to say well okay what happened to it where did it go what account did it go to how did you send it what address did it go to that's when it looks like to me you would be using this kind of trace thing do not request a payment trace to determine if you were eligible for a payment or to confirm the amount of payment you should have received how we process your claim will process your claim for a missing payment in one of two ways if a trace is initiated and the irs determines that the check wasn't cashed your irs will credit your account for that payment so obviously if the payment went out on the iris aside and you're saying yeah I didn't get it and they look at it they say oh the check is outstanding we sent a check maybe it went to the wrong place or got lost in the mail and they can tell that because it hasn't been cashed then that's one kind of scenario you would think would be remediable but the iris cannot reissue your payment instead you will need to claim the 2020 recovery rebate credit on your 2021 2020 tax return if eligible so in that event they're gonna sit they might say in there on their side they're gonna say okay we sent out the stimulus payment but it didn't get cash so apparently you didn't get it because it never actually left our account on the bank on the irs side of things we're not going to reissue it but we will recognize that it didn't go out so when you file the tax return for 2020 you want to you want to then calculate or claim the recovery rebate credit and that would be the way to remedy that that's my interpretation of their FAQ here note if you are filing a 2020 tax return before your trace is complete do not include the payment amount online 16 or 19 of the recovery rebate credit worksheet if you do you may receive a notice saying your 2020 recovery rebate credit was changed but an adjustment will be made after the trace is complete and it is determined that your payment has not been cashed you will not need to take any additional action to receive the credit if you do not request a trace or your on your payment you may receive an error when claiming the 2020 recovery rebate credit on your 2020 tax return so in that event if you if you're basically look up in your account and it's the irs says that they sent you the money and and you on your side are saying well no I didn't receive the money then you properly record the the recovery rebate credit on the on the tax return it's going to cause a problem on the irs side which could take some time to remedy especially in the current situation because there's going to be possibly a person that has to kind of get involved there because the machine the system is going to say yeah the thing that they claimed is not tying out to what we thought we paid them and therefore they're going to have to dig into it a little bit deeper so in that event if that was the case that's when you might want to initiate the trace which possibly could make things go you know a little bit faster as they as they got to determine the situation so since the payment was issued to you you may not be eligible for any credit if the check was cashed the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service there's a link to that here will send you a claim package that includes a copy of the cash check so obviously if you if you basically say hey look the thing I you didn't send me the check I never got the check and they're saying I know I sent the check and not only do I know I sent the check I see that it was cashed so now it looks like it was cashed and it might not have been cashed by you then the next step would be well was it you that cashed the check if it wasn't you that cashed the check then we still have a problem but it obviously if you did cash the check and you got the check and you know it ends at that point the next step would be well the iris looks on their side the check isn't outstanding the check was cashed the question now is is it a case of fraud someone else basically cashed the check or did you cash the check and get in the event in that event then you would have received the payment so follow the instructions the Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service will review your claim and the signature on the cancel check before determining whether the payment can be reversed and your recovery rebate credit adjustment start a payment trace so to start the payment trace you can call us at 800-919-9835 there'll be a link to this in the description so you can get to this FAQ if it's applicable to you mail or fax a completed form 3911 taxpayer statement regarding refund there's a link to that here to complete the form 3911 write quote II I P one in quote or II P two on the top of the form to identify the payment you want to trace complete the form answering all refund questions as they relate to your economic impact payment when completing line seven under section one check the box for quote individual in quote as the type of return entered quote 2020 in quote as the tax period do not write anything for the date filed signed the form if you file married filing joint both spouses must sign the form you will generally receive a response six weeks after we've received your request for a payment trace but there may be delays due to limited staffing I get up to date status on affected IRS operations and services there's a link to that here did not mail form 3911 if you have already requested a trace by phone you'll confuse the IRS if you if you ask them multiple times for the same thing generally if you mail or fax to form prior to the time frames above your request will not be processed until those time frames are met mail or fax to form to note do not send any anything other than a form 3911 to the fax numbers below so they got this information that's related directly to these forms and they'll be a link to this in the description so they've got the locations and then where you're going to mail it to so you got your table here and your contact information if this would be applicable to you under this FAQ