NOTICE: Cancellation of Certain Outstanding Economic Impact Payment Checks
July 7, 2020
As of July 6, 2020, the Treasury Department’s Internal Revenue Service has cancelled outstanding Economic Impact Payment (EIP) checks issued to recipients who may not be eligible for such program payments, including those that may be deceased.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) encourages financial institutions to determine the status of EIP checks by using either:
- The Treasury Check Verification Application (TCVA) for single queries; or
- The Treasury Check Verification Service (TCVS) for bulk queries using an automated programming interface (API).
If a financial institution inadvertently negotiates a cancelled EIP check, Treasury will not request or demand recovery from financial institutions, unless there is an additional reason to do so, for example the check was not properly endorsed. Similarly, Treasury will not reclaim from financial institutions ACH payments made to recipients who may not be eligible for such payments under program specifications.
EIP recipients are responsible for returning to the IRS a payment made to someone who may not be eligible for such payment under program specifications in accordance with IRS guidance at www.irs.gov/coronavirus (Off-site).
Financial institutions who choose to assist EIP recipients in returning any EIP checks that are not properly payable, can return these checks to:
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
Philadelphia Financial Center
P.O. Box 51320
Philadelphia, PA 19115
Financial institutions should include correspondence explaining the reason for return, which will be forwarded along to the IRS.
The TCVA for single queries and TCVS for bulk queries are tools to help the financial services industry check the status of U.S. Treasury checks. TCVA is available from Sunday 1:00 pm to Saturday 11:59 pm EST. TCVS is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
NOTE: TCVA and TCVS are unable to provide assurance that the check being presented is genuine (not counterfeit) or that it is properly payable. Check information is not real-time and may not reflect that a check has already been presented for payment and is in process.
For a cancelled EIP check in TCVA (single query), the response will be “The U.S. Treasury Check has already been paid.” For a cancelled EIP check in TCVS (bulk queries), the response will be “U.S. Treasury Check has been cancelled.”
For more information about TCVA and TCVS, please visit https://tcvs.fiscal.treasury.gov (Off-site) or contact Fiscal Service at (855) 868-0151 option #1 or paymentintegrity@fiscal.treasury.gov.
Fiscal Service has posted frequently asked questions for financial institutions and other useful links about economic impact payments at https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/news/useful-covid-19-links.html (Off-site). Fiscal Service will continue to update these FAQs as needed when there is new information to provide.