IRS Computer Glitch Causes 10s Of Thousands To Mistakenly Be Told They Won't Receive Stimulus Check

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The IRS mistakenly told tens of thousands of Americans they won't be getting a stimulus check.

Notices to 109,000 taxpayers were sent out that said, "We applied a credit to your 2007 tax account due to new legislation. We used all or part of your economic stimulus payment to pay your federal tax as the law allows… As a result, you don't owe us any money, nor are you due a refund."

However, none of this is true.

An apparent IRS computer glitch resulted in the wrong message being sent out to thousands of taxpayers who are awaiting their $600 stimulus payment.

Texas A&M Law School tax expert Bob Probasco said it appears a computer code from 14 years ago, the last time the federal government issued direct stimulus payments, got mixed up in the current program.

The notice that taxpayers were supposed to get was to inform them they haven't received their stimulus payment because their 2019 tax return had not been processed.

Instead, the IRS' computer system sent them a "CP21C" notice with a very different message.

"Everything is done by computers and the IRS' systems would have possibly been state-of-the-art 50 years ago, but they are hopelessly antiquated today," Probasco said. "This creates problems every time you have to make changes, especially on short notice like with the stimulus payments."

This latest snafu is yet another glitch in IRS' efforts to send out stimulus payments.

The IRS has also sent payments to dead people and to wrong bank accounts.

Meanwhile, an estimated 9 million qualifying Americans never received their stimulus payments.

With the likelihood of a third stimulus payment being approved by Congress in the coming weeks, tax experts say there will be more glitches, especially as the IRS tries to deliver stimulus payments while in the heart of the tax filling season.

On the IRS website under the questions and answer section, the agency said,

"This notice is not accurate for anyone who received it. Since no payment was issued, no offsets occurred. We apologize for the confusion this may have caused. You can disregard the notice."

If you did receive this notice, you will need to claim your stimulus payment as a credit on your 2020 tax return, otherwise, you won't get it.