I thought the government knew everything about me??

[dreamshark]

But apparently not. We didn't get our stimulus payments yet because, although we pay taxes every year, we don't get tax refunds. I thought I had read that the govt would use the bank info they haqve for direct depositing our Social Security payments, but apparently that's not the case. 

Thanks to marahmarie for posting a reminder and the link to Get My Payment. I followed the link and it worked smoothly - no crashes, no holdups, no bugs. They recognized my ID information: Soc Sec#, DOB, and address (surprisingly they did not ask for my name). Said "You are eligible for this payment. We do not have enough information to direct deposit your payment at this time." Then they invited me to enter that info. It turned out to be remarkably easy. Supposedly it worked:  "You have successfully submitted your bank account information. Your payment will be direct deposited into your bank account using the information you provided."  We shall see. 

Since we don't personally need it for essential expenses, we intend to donate it to local food shelves. 

 

Comments

[guppiecat]

The government does know everything about you - but they are massively inefficient.

This is why I prefer government oversight to that of corporations, which also know everything about you and are somewhat less inefficient.

[dreamshark]

Good point. Or as Miss Manners says when completely complain about etiquette rules that make dining slower and more cumbersome, efficiency isn't actually the point of table manners.

[redbird]

I recently read, as an example of this, how the site NextDoor reducted the number of racist postings about "suspicious" people in a neighborhood. The site added a step in which, to report a suspicious person, users had to say what about the person's behavior concerned them.

The article described this, specifically, as adding friction to the system, noting that efficiency is not always good.

[quadong]

I think coincidentally 2018 was the first tax year I gave the IRS my bank account information for a refund. Typically I owe money, and when I've been owed, I've previously opted for a paper check so I don't have to tell the gummit my bank information. I don't remember why I changed this time, but it has certainly been handy.

[dreamshark]

So I gather that you have gotten your money? There have been a few glitches (like the Supreme Covidiot's insistence on holding up the paper checks so they could bear his heroic signature) but mostly I have been amazed at how efficiently the distribution seems to be going. I really expected that Get Your Check website to be tedious and painful, but it ran smooth as silk and seemed to be looking up my information IN REAL TIME. Considering how many taxpayers are in that database (and how archaic the IRS computers are reputed to be) it was pretty astonishing. In this case I had no objection to efficiency.

[davidwilford]

Both my mother and I have gotten our money thanks to providing the IRS our checking account numbers for direct deposit of our tax refunds. Didn't have to do a thing.

[quadong]

Yeah, the money (the right amount, even) just appeared in my bank account. I didn't do anything.