Payment Status Not Available

In early March, the Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service started to send out the stimulus payments or known as the third Economic Impact Payments. Some taxpayers still see the payment status as not available error on their stimulus payment status. We’re going to answer these errors, but we first need to look at the process of how taxpayers receive stimulus payments.

Those who have their payment information with the IRS received their payments direct deposited into their bank accounts. The first batch of stimulus payment paper checks rolled out about three weeks later. Like the first and second Economic Impact Payments, some taxpayers received a paper check, and others got a debit card. If you got a debit card rather than a paper check, you need to follow the instructions found on the card to get your PIN so you can retrieve the funds. Regardless of how you receive your stimulus payment, it’s not taxable by any means. Therefore, you won’t need to add it to your gross income when calculating 2024 taxes. 

Regardless of how you’re expecting to get your stimulus payment, you can look up your payment status using the Get My Payment tool, also known as the Where’s My Stimulus tool. When checking the status of your stimulus, you may have come across specific errors or information that you don’t know what to make out of. This article will explain some of these errors, including the most commonly seen one, payment status not available.

Answers to payment status not available on Get My Payment

You look up the status of your stimulus payment and see the payment status not available. It’s the most seen error on the tool. This error generally refers to the IRS not having information about your stimulus payment due to a lack of information on how to get the funds to you. In a situation like this, the best you can do is to update the IRS with your payment information, and the easiest way to do so is to file a federal income tax return, even if you’re a non-filer that isn’t obligated to file one.

Why am I still getting ‘Payment Status Not Available’?

So you filed your federal income tax return or updated your payment information with the IRS and went back to the Get My Payment tool to look up the status of your stimulus payment, but still get the payment status not available. What can you do to get your stimulus payment? First and foremost, make sure that you’re eligible for a third Economic Impact Payment. Secondly, if you’re eligible, you might have had to claim the recovery rebate credit on your tax return as these payments are an advanced payment of this credit. You can learn more information about this tax credit by reading our guide for the 2021 recovery rebate credit.

Not Enough Information on Get My Payment

Not enough information on Get My Payment is also another commonly faced issue when checking the status of stimulus payments. This error is displayed on the Get My Payment tool in either one of the following situations.

• The IRS doesn’t have enough information to issue you the third Economic Impact Payment;
• You are not eligible for the third Economic Impact Payment.

It’s either one of the above two outcomes when you see the not enough information on the status bar using the stimulus tracker.