Launched this morning, the IRS has a new section of the IRS.gov site called Get My Payment that lets you check on the status of your stimulus payment as well as enter direct deposit banking info to receive your payment electronically rather than waiting until May (or possibly longer) for a physical check.

You will need your tax information from your most recent filing, either 2018 or 2019. To start, the site will need to verify your identity via your social security number, birth date, and current address.

After the initial verification, the secondary verification will require you to input your adjusted gross income (from your most recent tax return) as well as the amount of money you received as a refund or had to pay. Below that, you input your savings or checking routing / account number for direct deposit.

After that information has been processed (24 hours), you can log back into the site in order to check when payment will be issued into your account. If you did not file taxes in 2018 or 2019, you are still likely eligible for the stimulus payment. Just go to the Non-filers Payment Info page to enter your details.

Who is Eligible?

Payments of $1,200 will be issued to individuals or head of household tax filers; $2,400 for married filing jointly. This is limited to adjusted gross income up to:

• $75,000 for individuals
• $112,500 for head of household filers and
• $150,000 for married couples filing joint returns

If you make more than those limits, you may receive a reduced payment ($5 less for every $100 in AGI you are over the limit)

• $75,000 and $99,000 if their filing status was single or married filing separately
• 112,500 and $136,500 for head of household
• $150,000 and $198,000 if their filing status was married filing jointly

For instance, if you make $85,000 as an individual, you are $10,000 over the AGI limit. Your payment would be $1,200 – (10,000 / 100 * $5) = $700.

Who isn’t eligible?

If you income is above these limits, you won’t receive anything.

• $99,000 if your filing status was single or married filing separately
• $136,500 for head of household
• $198,000 if your filing status was married filing jointly

If you are claimed as a dependent on someone else’s taxes (college students, seniors living with their adult children), you won’t receive anything. If you don’t have a valid social security number, you won’t receive anything. If you are a nonresident alien, you won’t receive anything.

What about kids?

If you have children and you claimed them as dependents on your last tax filing, you will receive an additional $500 per child, assuming they are age 16 or younger. Payments for children are also subject to the same income level requirements as listed above.

If you are behind on child support payments, be aware that you either won’t receive a stimulus payment or it will be reduced in order to cover delinquent child support payments.

Do I have to pay this money back?

No. The stimulus payment will not be taxed (you won’t be claiming it on your 2020 tax return) and it does not need to be paid back to the federal government.

Want direct deposit of the coronavirus stimulus payment? Go here on the IRS site

It’s almost tax time again! The IRS has been accepting 2017 tax returns for the past couple months. Interestingly, there are a couple additional days to file taxes this year due to April 15 falling on a Sunday as well as the District of Columbia’s Emancipation Day holiday. That pushes the traditional April 15 deadline to April 17, 2018.

Of course, there are always a multitude of options when filing your taxes. While free is always preferred for Americans under a specific income threshold, we are also going to break down the top software options for knocking out those pesky taxes on a lazy Sunday.

The Best Free Options, $66,000 and under:

If you made less than $64,000 over 2017, you can visit the Free File page on the IRS site. That site provides thirteen software options on third party sites. Read each option carefully to see if you qualify. Many of the options are limited to a specific age range, state or even dollar figure.

For instance, the TurboTax’s popular software caps the limit at $33,000 rather than $64,000 unless you eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Alternatively, Free1040TaxReturn.com offers the $64,000 limit to anyone under 70, assuming you don’t live in five excluded states.

Some of these sites will also offer free state returns, but others will charge. It’s recommended that you search your state’s website for information regarding free filing options for state taxes.

The Best Free Option, over $66,000:

If you make more than $66,000 in your household, you can also just enter your tax information into the paper forms using FreeFile. Of course, this is significantly more complex as you have to understand how tax forms work rather than answering questions in tax software. However, you can use your tax forms (completed with tax software from previous years) to figure out where to fill out data correctly.

In addition, this is the second year that Credit Karma has offered this service. According to the signup page, the service will be completely free. Specifically, they claim to offer free federal & state filing, no additional fees for using the service and have a support staff on hand to answer questions.

The Cheapest Software Options:

TaxAct remains the champion for the least expensive, basic tax software at between $15 for federal filing and $17 for state filing. It’s also highly competitive (feature-wise) to H&R Block as well as TurboTax, particularly ideal for anyone that’s filing a simple return. It’s a little less intuitive for people that are self-employed or have lots of investment income, but it will do the job with a little digging. It’s our pick for the best option for most users.

If your taxes are very complicated and requires lots of itemizing, you may want to invest in TurboTax. This would be more ideal for anyone that’s a small business owner or has to deal with investments like rental property. The downside is that you will have to pay up to $120 for the right software as an additional $37 when filing your state taxes.

There are also some perks to consider with more expensive software. Some tax software has an auto-import feature that pulls all W2 information in without having to enter it line by line. Other features included in some tax software are audit-checks, saving tax info online and the ability to load your refund onto a Visa prepaid card or a store gift card.

Here’s a breakdown on costs for the top five tax software options:

• TurboTax – Federal: $60 to $120 / State: $40
• TaxAct – Federal: $15 to $70 / State: $17 to $40
• TaxSlayer – Federal: $24 to $47 / State: $29
• H&R Block – Federal: $50 to $95 / State: $40
• Jackson Hewitt – Federal: $55 to 75 / State: $40

Do You Even Need to File?

Just a reminder, you may not need to file a tax return if you make less than $10,350 per year (under age 65). Here’s a chart that breaks down income thresholds for filing. However, you may want to considering filing anyway, especially if you can tax advantage of credits like the American Opportunity credit. That will help you get a little money back this year.

Are There Deals on Tax Software?

Yes. Turbotax’s software packages will go on and off sale frequently starting in late January through about early April. Look for deals in the Ben’s feed here from retailers such as Amazon and Dell.

The Cheapest Ways to File your Taxes this Year