From the Philadelphia Regional Financial Center

FMS Revises 150.1 Form Making ACH Non-Receipts Easy

Each year more than 140,000 tax refund recipients file claims with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleging they did not receive their Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment, otherwise known as Electronic Funds Transfer (EFTs). The FMS Form 150.1 is used to confirm the receipt of ACH payments. Upon receipt of this form, a financial institution (FI) is obligated to provide the Financial Management Service (FMS) with a status of the payment. Often times, an FI's response to the FMS 150.1 form requires follow-up due to the need for additional information. In an effort to minimize the necessary follow-up work between FMS and the FI's, the Philadelphia Financial Center (PFC) recently made updates to the form. The updated FMS 150.1 form now offers FI's better options when sending a response to FMS.

• If the payment was misdirected (the name on the account does not match the intended payee's), the FI can indicate whether there are any funds available to return.
  
  
• The FI can specify if the funds were returned through ACH, and when the payment was returned.
  
  
• If the payment could not be sent back through ACH, the FI can indicate whether or not the funds were returned by an official bank check.
  
  

The revised FMS 150.1 also incorporates language from the recently amended Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 (12 USC 3413 (k) - Disclosure Necessary for Proper Administration of Programs of Certain Government Authorities), which allows FI's, at their discretion, to include account-owner information for issuing Federal Program Agency (FPA) use only. This additional information allows the FPA an improved opportunity for collecting misdirected payments from unintended recipients.

The revised FMS 150.1 provides a more convenient mechanism for FI's responding to FMS, as well as reducing the additional follow-up steps FMS must take to resolve a claim, thus improving the speed at which FMS can provide the results of an investigation to the issuing FPA.

For more information on ACH Non-Receipts, please visit: http://fms.treas.gov/greenbook/pdf/NonreceiptRevNov2009.pdf. For specific questions, please contact the Philadelphia Financial Center's Help Desk at (215) 516-8154 or philly@fms.treas.gov.