If you were a customer at Entegra Bank before it closed and you haven’t received your $600 stimulus check yet, you may need to wait awhile before clearing things up with the IRS.
First Citizens Bank acquired Entegra on Dec. 31, 2019, and as such, customers with the latter lost their former routing numbers. Unfortunately, this means that the IRS currently has out of date routing information for hundreds of Macon County residents who used Entegra before the acquisition. If they attempted to deposit a stimulus payment into an invalid account, the relevant bank had to refuse the money.
“If [a stimulus] was sent to a defunct account, we were required to send it back,” said Frank Smith, a communications official for First Citizens Bank. “I recommend people go straight to the IRS website. There’s a tool there that they can use to check on their payment and then they can go from there.”
Customers who find themselves in this situation will probably have to wait awhile before they see their stimulus money. Jeff Butler, owner of Liberty Tax Service, says that it’s possible to claim the stimulus payment as a refund on their 2020 taxes, which could mean going months without funds meant to help people get by at the peak of COVID-19. However, Butler said that because the stimulus is still a recent development, new channels for securing the money earlier could still open up.
“This is an evolving situation,” Butler said. “I know the ultimate answer, but short-term solutions are still forming.”
The IRS has already taken some steps to alleviate the burden on affected taxpayers, including reissuing some payments through the mail rather than through direct deposit, and they expect many complaints on the matter to be resolved within a few more weeks without the need for any additional action by the taxpayers.
The IRS encouraged anyone who doesn’t get their stimulus payment to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit when they file their 2020 tax return.
Hillary Kestler with Select Bank, which acquired three Entegra branches (Holly Springs, Highlands and Sylva branches) but not their routing numbers, says that it’s important to keep up with news from the IRS to see what the current plan for these payments is.
“It seems like each day there is another decision being made by the IRS on what to do with these payments, so we’re keeping up to date on all of the materials as best we can and relaying that as best we can,” Kestler said.
For more information regarding problems with receiving stimulus payments, go online to irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment.
The IRS will begin accepting and processing 2020 tax returns on Feb. 12.