Wednesday, April 22, 2020

 

Hello, I’m Devon Whitmore, the Community Advocate with DEAF, Inc. My area of focus is within communication access.

 

We, at DEAF, Inc., are committed to monitoring and keeping you informed to things affected by COVID-19.  We know that some of you are in the hopes of having some financial relief during these times. Now, some of you may have been impacted financially by layoff or such like reduced hours, we want to ensure you can maximize any financial support. If you have completed an application for one of the direct economic assistance under the CARES Act, such as the Economic Impact Payment or the assistance to Small Business, there has been a huge influx of people applying for these assistance programs. In this type of situation, it requires patience in this process, especially if you know that you have completed the application(s) properly.

 

Eligibility and General Information-

You can view IRS website to see whether you are eligible for the Economic Impact Payment or not.  Payment amounts based on your income and the number of qualifying children is explained on IRS website at irs.gov

 

Payments to you would be determined by IRS based on the most recent tax you had filed with IRS, be it 2019 or 2018 taxes.

 

First wave of anticipated payments should occur on the week of April 13 and subsequent waves of payments to come at later dates. The payment will be sent direct deposit based on your bank information IRS has had from the past.

 

Verifying correct bank info-

Whether you’ve already taken action or not, if part of your tax refund was deducted by your tax preparer, for example, H&R Block, TurboTax, or Jackson Hewitt, their fees which were deducted, it has been suggested that you check with IRS to make sure that they have your correct bank info.

 

Payment recipients: watch for an IRS letter

For security reasons, the IRS plans to mail a letter about the economic impact payment to your last known address within 15 days after the payment is paid. The letter will provide information on how the payment was made and how to report any failure to receive the payment. If a you are unsure that you received a legitimate letter, the IRS urges you to visit IRS.gov first to protect against scams.

 

Avoid scams related to economic payments, COVID-19

Especially important, the IRS urges you to be on the lookout for scam artists trying to use the economic impact payments as a cover for plans to steal personal information and money. Remember, the IRS will not call, text you, email you or contact you on social media asking for personal or bank account information. Also, watch out for emails with attachments or links claiming to have special information  about economic impact payments or refunds.  Again, please check with irs.gov to receive official information.

 

Look to irs.gov for tools and processes. You may check or track your payment status, but they’re only updated once daily, so no need to check frequently. The system could lock you out if you make too many attempts to access your status.

 

Please see links for more information at the end of this video including a link to other IRS videos in ASL. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to continue to support you.

 

 Official Sources –

Economic Impact Payment Information Center

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payment-information-center

 

All other IRS videos in ASL:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/videos-american-sign-language-asl

 

Disclaimer: We are not responsible for the failure of any technological access or electrical transmission by Internal Revenue Service (IRS), either by phone or online.

 

 

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