Tax refunds

A COVID-wrecked economy has changed the calculus for some financial planners.

The Internal Revenue Service is still dealing with a backlog of unprocessed mail from 2020, hurting its efforts to provide help with COVID-19 relief payments and this year’s tax season.

The Treasury Department said Friday it plans to launch an all-out effort to deliver Economic Impact Payments to people who haven’t yet received the two rounds of stimulus payments that they should have received last year or this month.

Tax-refund delays and stimulus-payment hiccups could spill into the upcoming tax season as the Internal Revenue Service continues to face challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic and as Congress considers yet another round of direct payments.

With the filing season upon us, a raft of brand new challenges await ahead of the April 15 deadline.

President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to pass a multitrillion-dollar economic stimulus package early in his administration faces challenges in a closely divided U.S. Senate, with a potential impeachment trial for Donald Trump that could add to delays.

The Internal Revenue Service is once again depositing the latest round of Economic Impact Payments in the wrong bank accounts in a replay of problems experienced last year by many taxpayers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday closed off chances that the Senate would pass anytime soon a House bill that would give most Americans $2,000 stimulus payments.

The initial direct deposits of the second round of economic impact payments are already going out to taxpayers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked an attempt by Democrats to force quick action increasing direct stimulus payments to $2,000 as President Donald Trump warned that failing to act now amounted to a “death wish” by Republicans.