Treasury Cancels Outstanding EIP Checks

Treasury Department announced that as of July 6, 2020 it 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. 

In its release, Treasury encouraged banks 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). 

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.” 

If a bank inadvertently negotiates a cancelled EIP check, Treasury will not request or demand recovery from the bank, unless there is an additional reason to do so, for example the check was not properly endorsed. Similarly, Treasury will not reclaim from banks ACH payments made to recipients who may not be eligible for such payments under program specifications. 

EIP recipients are responsible for returning to Treasury a payment made to someone who may not be eligible for such payment under program specifications in accordance with guidance at www.irs.gov/coronavirus. 

Customers should use the following address for the return of EIP checks to the Treasury: 

U.S. Department of the Treasury 
Bureau of the Fiscal Service 
Philadelphia Financial Center 
P.O. Box 51320 
Philadelphia, PA 19115 

Treasury also requests customers include correspondence explaining the reason for return.  

Treasury has also posted frequently asked questions (FAQs) for banks and other useful links about EIPs at https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/news/useful-covid-19-links.html. Treasury will continue to update the FAQs as needed when there is new information to provide. 

By, Ally Bates