IRS sent stim $$ to millions of bad accts.

The Internal Revenue Service sent the stimulus checks of millions of Americans to the wrong bank accounts, tax preparers say — a mistake the feds are now trying to fix.

The agency “inadvertently sent payments to over 13 million bank accounts that are no longer open or valid,” forcing affected banks to return the money to the US Treasury, according to tax-preparation service Jackson Hewitt.

The estimate is the latest sign that the IRS rollout of the $600 coronavirus relief payments suffered from a large-scale glitch as the agency worked to distribute the money by Jan. 15.

The IRS said Friday it’s working to get the misplaced funds into Americans’ correct bank accounts. That marks a shift from earlier this week, when officials indicated that unlucky taxpayers would still have to claim the payments on their 2020 tax returns to be filed this year.

“We know how important these funds are for so many Americans and we regret that an IRS error caused a delay,” online tax-prep serviced TurboTax said in a blog post Friday.

The IRS said it has deposited more than 100 million stimulus checks into eligible Americans’ bank accounts since the money started going out last week. But problems arose for people whose checks were directed to temporary bank accounts that were set up when their 2019 tax returns were filed, the agency said.

Companies such as TurboTax and H&R Block open those accounts when customers choose to have their tax-preparation fees deducted from their refunds. Payments may have also been sent to accounts for short-term loans.