American expats afraid they won’t get coronavirus stimulus checks because IRS won’t accept foreign addresses or accounts

AMERICANS living abroad are worried they will not receive coronavirus stimulus checks from the IRS, which won’t accept foreign addresses.

Expats using an IRS tool have not been able to enter non-US bank information, according to Business Insider.

This problem was flagged by Nevada congresswoman Dina Titus, who informed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig last month.

The agency does not usually send refunds or other deposits to non-US bank accounts and does not appear to make an exception for the coronavirus checks, according to Business Insider.

Gwendolyn Rodriguez, who lives in Guatemala, told the news outlet that she tried using the IRS Get My Payment tool, but said it would not accept her foreign address.

Rep. Titus asked the federal government to fix these issues on behalf of “thousands of Americans living abroad” who need the stimulus payments.

The letter was also signed by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Rep. James P. McGovern of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, according to Business Insider.

“It is critical that direct deposit is available, as postal service around the world has experienced service disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic,” the letter obtained by BI reads.

“We ask that you modify the online tool to include a field for bank accounts with non-US banks and a field for non-US phone numbers, as many non-US phone numbers have more than ten digits.”

Titus said the IRS has not offered a solution.

“US citizens living abroad are eligible to receive direct payments, but the IRS has taken too long to ensure that they can access the relief they deserve,” she told Business Insider.

“These constituents are too often ignored and I will keep pushing the IRS to get this fixed.”

The US government has distributed about 130 million economic impact payments to taxpayers in less than 30 days, but there have been some hiccups, including payments to dead taxpayers and inactive accounts.

The IRS expects to be sending more than 150 million payments as part of the CARES Act, which was signed by President Trump earlier this year.

He said earlier this week that another round of the $1200 checks may come as well.

There have now been about four million coronavirus cases around the world with 275,000 deaths.