No more Paper Checks from the IRS

On March 25th, President Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the sending of paper checks for any federal payment, including checks for IRS tax refunds.

That will be a major issue for people who don't have US bank accounts, especially those abroad. 

Many expats, dual citizens and foreign investors who don't have a US bank account currently receive checks.

Perhaps that's part of the plan to pay up the national debt, to make obtaining refunds for those without US bank accounts very difficult.

A solution is to set up a Wise or Revolut account with US bank info.

But that's not a great solution. Wise temporarily stopped accepting new accounts for those residing in a country I deal with a lot. Revolut only works for certain countries. 

Though there are also alternative Fintech accounts with US bank info which can be used.

I would assume that the IRS will eventually start allowing direct deposits to foreign bank accounts. Just like social security has done for a long time already. 

We'll see what happens in the interim before that's implemented. 

Another possibility is that there will be an exception made for those living outside the US. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/modernizing-payments-to-and-from-americas-bank-account/