Our understanding is that 2018 will be used.
We are still waiting for IRS guidance regarding updating or providing direct deposit information for the stimulus payments. We will have more information once the government finalizes the details. In the meantime, you can visit the following links for the most recent updates:
Just as an update, the official answer came today. The 2018 direct deposit information was not used. (If I had to guess, it would be because it was over a year ago, and they are trying to prevent sending money to an account that hasn't been confirmed recently. This is a good control to prevent the money going to someone it was not intended for, so I get it.) I went to the IRS Website (https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments) and put in my information. I did confirm I qualified for a payment and asked for my direct deposit information. Before accepting it, the website also had me confirm some information from my most recent tax filing, so it would be good to have that information handy when attempting to do this. I was able to enter that information quickly and the site indicated the payment would be sent via direct deposit.
What I don't know is whether or not my payment will be processed faster since my banking information matches what they had on file from 2018. If new information is used, I could see it potentially taking longer to process as there may be an additional anti-fraud check in place.
Our understanding is that 2018 will be used.
We are still waiting for IRS guidance regarding updating or providing direct deposit information for the stimulus payments. We will have more information once the government finalizes the details. In the meantime, you can visit the following links for the most recent updates:
Just as an update, the official answer came today. The 2018 direct deposit information was not used. (If I had to guess, it would be because it was over a year ago, and they are trying to prevent sending money to an account that hasn't been confirmed recently. This is a good control to prevent the money going to someone it was not intended for, so I get it.) I went to the IRS Website (https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments) and put in my information. I did confirm I qualified for a payment and asked for my direct deposit information. Before accepting it, the website also had me confirm some information from my most recent tax filing, so it would be good to have that information handy when attempting to do this. I was able to enter that information quickly and the site indicated the payment would be sent via direct deposit.
What I don't know is whether or not my payment will be processed faster since my banking information matches what they had on file from 2018. If new information is used, I could see it potentially taking longer to process as there may be an additional anti-fraud check in place.