The IRS recently developed the “Did I Receive an Economic Recovery Payment?” look-up tool which gives taxpayers an easy way to determine if they received the one-time ERP payment and which agency made the payment. Beginning March 8, 2010, tax-payers can call 866-234-2942 to access the phone application. The Web application will be available on IRS.gov.

Taxpayers must report whether or not they received an ERP and the amount when they pre-pare their Schedule M, Making Work Pay and Government Retiree Credits. The one time $250 ERP was paid to individuals in the following categories:

• Retirees, disabled individuals and Supple-mental Security Income (SSI) recipients re-ceiving benefits from the Social Security Administration,
• Disabled veterans receiving benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and
• Railroad Retirement beneficiaries.

Using the IRS look-up tool taxpayers will have to enter three pieces of information to deter-mine if they received an ERP:

• SSN
• Date of birth
• Zip code from the last filed return

A separate telephone call or Web inquiry must be made for each taxpayer, even if filing a joint tax return.