Martin Cantu, EA - Tax Consultant - Tax Relief Services Blog

As the saying goes, "Follow the money". The money in question here is your government stimulus check. #stimuluscheck Think of this as a video game, with the player (you) trying to get home with hard dollars in your hand. Along the way there are several times others will attempt to get those dollars from you, leaving you empty handed by the time you get home. Understanding this problem requires looking closely at a couple of different areas - tax law and Texas garnishment law. Without getting to technical, here is a quick summary: Normally, any government issued dollars are subject to offset by the IRS to pay off a government obligation. The most common is are an IRS debt and a federally insured student loan. The IRS would take any refund earned and apply to those obligations. The current Presidential Order prevents the IRS from making those offsets, at least until August. As with all things there are exceptions. The main exception at this time is a child support oblig

The IRS recently announced two tools to assist you in easing delivery of your COVID Relief Check. Click on this IRS link  for the information. It provides two sections - one for non-filers and one for those who did file in 2018 or 2019 but did not provide direct deposit information. Currently the portal allowing you to input your direct deposit information is not active. The website indicates that it will be available mid month, which in the coming week. I suggest that you monitor this website daily. Your #COVIDReliefcheck will get to you easier than waiting for it in the mail. The website will ask for your bank's routing number and your account number. You can obtain both numbers from the bottom of a check, or off of your bank's website. Keep the information handy before you logon, as the site is likely to have a lot of traffic.