An EIP non-posted item means the IRS sent your Economic Impact Payment electronically, but the deposit was rejected by the receiving bank and the money went back to the U.S. Treasury. It never cleared into your available balance. The payment is not lost, but it is not yours yet either, and by 2026 the window to claim it has nearly closed.
What a Non-Posted EIP Actually Is
The IRS issued most stimulus payments through the Automated Clearing House network, using the bank details from your most recent tax return. A non-posted designation means that transfer was initiated but never cleared. This is different from a pending deposit, which is still in motion. A non-posted item has already failed: the funds have been returned to Treasury, and your bank ledger may show the attempted deposit followed by a reversal or a “returned item” notation.
On the IRS side, the failed delivery is logged on your tax account transcript with a specific transaction code. That transcript is the most reliable way to confirm what actually happened to the payment.
Why the Deposit Bounced
If anything about your banking changed between filing the return the IRS used and the date the payment went out, the transfer could fail. The usual triggers:
- A closed account. If you switched banks or closed the account tied to your last tax filing, the receiving institution had no active account to accept the deposit and rejected it with an ACH return code.
- A wrong account or routing number. Even a single transposed digit sends the payment to a nonexistent account, and the ACH system kicks it back automatically.
- A name mismatch. Banks compare the name on the incoming deposit against the account name. A legal name change from marriage or divorce, or a significant spelling difference between the return and bank records, can cause the bank to return the deposit.
- A frozen or restricted account. Accounts under a legal hold, garnishment order, or internal bank restriction may refuse incoming deposits, and the bank returns the funds rather than routing them into a locked account.
In each case the money makes a round trip, Treasury to bank and back, and the IRS records the failure on your account.
Confirming It on Your IRS Transcript
The “Get My Payment” tool the IRS ran during the pandemic is no longer available.1Internal Revenue Service. Coronavirus Tax Relief and Economic Impact Payments Two tools remain. The first is your IRS Individual Online Account at IRS.gov/account. On the Tax Records page, you can see the first, second, and third EIP amounts listed under the relevant year’s payment information.2Internal Revenue Service. 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit – Topic F: Finding the First and Second Economic Impact Payment Amounts to Calculate the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit If you filed jointly, each spouse has to log in separately, since the system shows only your individual portion.
For the detail that actually tells you a payment failed, pull your tax account transcript for the relevant year. You can view, print, or download it directly through your online account, or request one with Form 4506-T.3Internal Revenue Service. Get Your Tax Records and Transcripts4Internal Revenue Service. About Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return The transcript shows the transaction codes.
The Codes That Tell the Story
Three codes matter when tracking a returned EIP:
- Transaction Code 846 means a refund or payment was issued to you, by direct deposit or paper check. If TC 846 appears with an amount matching your expected stimulus payment, the IRS did send it.5Internal Revenue Service. Section 8A – Master File Codes
- Transaction Code 740 means the refund check or deposit came back as undeliverable. The IRS redeposits the credit to your tax module and freezes it from further refunding until the issue is resolved.5Internal Revenue Service. Section 8A – Master File Codes
- Transaction Code 841 means the refund was cancelled. The module gets frozen from offsetting or further refunding until the IRS takes corrective action.5Internal Revenue Service. Section 8A – Master File Codes
The pattern that confirms a non-posted EIP is a TC 846 followed by a TC 740 or TC 841. If a second TC 846 appears after the reversal, the IRS reissued the payment. If no second TC 846 shows up, the money is sitting in your tax account waiting to be reclaimed.
What the IRS Does on Its Own After a Bounce
When a direct deposit fails, the IRS generally tries to reissue by mailing a paper check or prepaid debit card to your last known address. For general refund situations where a direct deposit is returned, the IRS issues a paper check after roughly six weeks.
During the EIP rollout, the IRS also sent formal notices confirming each round of payment. Notice 1444 corresponded to the first payment under the CARES Act, Notice 1444-B to the second, and Notice 1444-C to the third.6Internal Revenue Service. Notice 1444-B – Your Second Economic Impact Payment Each notice listed the payment amount and delivery method. A notice saying a payment was issued, combined with money that never arrived, is strong evidence of a non-posted item and a good starting point for a payment trace.
Requesting a Payment Trace
If your transcript shows TC 846 but you never received the money, you can ask the IRS to formally investigate. File Form 3911, Taxpayer Statement Regarding Refund, by mail or fax to the IRS Refund Inquiry Unit for your region.7Internal Revenue Service. About Form 3911, Taxpayer Statement Regarding Refund You can also start a trace by calling 800-919-9835. Don’t send supporting documents with the form; the IRS wants Form 3911 by itself when filing by fax.
The trace asks the IRS to determine whether the payment was cashed, deposited by someone else, or returned. If it was returned to Treasury, the IRS should reissue it. The agency does not publish a guaranteed turnaround, and processing has often been slow.
Claiming a Missing EIP Through the Recovery Rebate Credit
The Recovery Rebate Credit is the backstop for anyone who didn’t receive their full stimulus payment. It appears on the tax return for the corresponding year. The 2020 return covers the first and second EIPs. The 2021 return covers the third.8Internal Revenue Service. 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit – Topic C: Eligibility for Claiming a Recovery Rebate Credit on a 2021 Tax Return If you received less than your eligible amount, the credit makes up the difference as a refundable credit, either reducing your tax bill or increasing your refund.9Internal Revenue Service. 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit Questions and Answers
One important catch: the Recovery Rebate Credit does not carry the same offset protection the advance EIPs had. The CARES Act shielded the first round of advance payments from offset for most debts other than past-due child support, and the December 2020 legislation protected the second round from all offsets including child support. Those protections were limited to the advance payments. A Recovery Rebate Credit claimed on a tax return is subject to the regular Treasury Offset Program rules, meaning it can be seized for unpaid federal taxes, past-due child support, and certain other debts.10Taxpayer Advocate Service. NTA Blog: Many Taxpayers May Not Receive the Full Amount of Economic Impact Payments to Which They Are Entitled If you owe outstanding debts to federal or state agencies, claiming the credit could result in the money being diverted before it reaches you.
The IRS has confirmed that all three rounds of advance EIPs have been fully issued.11Internal Revenue Service. Economic Impact Payments No new advance payments are going out. Recovery now runs either through a payment trace for a previously issued payment or through the Recovery Rebate Credit on a tax return.
The 2026 Deadline Problem
The standard window to claim a tax refund is three years from the original filing deadline. For the 2020 tax year, which covers the first and second EIPs, that window closed in mid-2024. For the 2021 tax year, which covers the third EIP, the deadline to file or amend and claim the Recovery Rebate Credit was April 15, 2025. Both have passed.
A recent court decision may offer a narrow extension. In Kwong v. United States, decided November 2025, the court interpreted the COVID-19 disaster declaration as automatically extending certain filing and payment deadlines under IRC Section 7508A(d). The Taxpayer Advocate Service has noted that under this reasoning, most taxpayers would have until July 10, 2026, to file refund claims related to the COVID-19 disaster period, which runs from January 20, 2020, through May 11, 2023.12Taxpayer Advocate Service. Tens of Millions of Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
Whether Kwong‘s reasoning reaches Recovery Rebate Credits specifically is unsettled. The Taxpayer Advocate has said taxpayers who missed their full EIP “may argue they still have time to file 2020 or 2021 returns or protective claims seeking Recovery Rebate Credits,” while cautioning that the court did not directly address eligibility for specific credits and the IRS has not formally adopted this position.13Taxpayer Advocate Service. Beyond Penalties and Interest: How Kwong May Affect Missed Tax Refunds Part IV Filing a claim is no guarantee the IRS will approve it, and some claims may draw additional scrutiny.
If you have an unresolved non-posted EIP and haven’t filed the relevant return, the safer move is to file before July 10, 2026, rather than wait for legal clarity that may come too late. A claim filed and denied can be contested. A claim never filed cannot.