How will the delivery of the COVID-19 relief checks work?
I've seen a number of articles suggesting that the government will direct deposit the checks into taxpayer accounts directly, but how can they do that? They don't have any way of knowing everyone's current account information. At best, they would know the checking account numbers for retirees who currently have their social security checks direct deposited, and they would also have recent information on the accounts people used who filed electronically on their 2019 return. But not everyone files electronically and many people send their payments and receive their refunds through paper checks.
Also, the articles I've seen suggest that the payments will be based on 2018 returns, and even for those taxpayers who filed electronically for that year, how can the government know or presume those accounts would still be the right ones to use? Case in point. I mentioned in another post some of the tax issues my daughter experienced as a result of going through a divorce in late 2019. If the awards are to be based on her 2018 return, my daughter filed that return electronically with her ex-husband, and their refund was applied to his checking account. She, of course, no longer uses or has access to that account. if the government sends her COVID-19 check to that account, she will literally never see it or even know it got deposited. How will they assure that checks are direct deposited into the right accounts?