Good News: $3.5 Billion Worth of Stimulus Payments Were Sent Out

Rachel Bucchino

Stimulus Check,

The most recent batch, worth $3.5 billion, included 900,000 supplemental, or “plus-up” payments for those who had their third stimulus check based on 2019 tax returns but are now eligible for a new or larger payment due to their recently submitted 2020 tax returns.

Here's What You Need to Remember: Keep a look out for a possible stimulus check in your account.

More than 1.8 million stimulus payments from President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package have been sent out in the past two weeks, the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday. 

The most recent batch, worth $3.5 billion, included 900,000 supplemental, or “plus-up” payments for those who had their third stimulus check based on 2019 tax returns but are now eligible for a new or larger payment due to their recently submitted 2020 tax returns. To qualify, a person’s 2020 income must be lower than their 2019 income.

Biden’s rescue package sent $1,400 direct payments to eligible individuals, plus an additional $1,400 check per dependent. Eligible recipients for the full stimulus payment include single filers earning up to $75,000, and joint filers making up to $150,000. Individual filers earning up to $80,000 and joint filers making up to $160,000 will receive smaller amounts. Eligibility is based on the most recent tax return and adjusted gross income. 

The batch also sent more than 900,000 payments, worth a value of roughly $1.9 billion, to people who the IRS did not have information on file in order to send them the stimulus money.

The majority of the payments were sent to eligible individuals through direct deposit, with the remainder as paper check payments. 

Overall, 167 million payments have been sent out by the IRS since March, worth more than $391 billion. Only 7.3 percent of eligible recipients haven’t seen their third stimulus payment yet, but the agency noted that checks will continue to be pumped out in the upcoming weeks. 

Biden’s relief bill also widened the eligibility pool for dependents, allowing dependents over the age of sixteen to qualify. Those under the age of nineteen, students under the age of twenty-four, and those who are permanently and totally disabled qualify as a child for the additional tax relief. The change in eligibility made 13.5 million more people able to receive the stimulus checks.

The dependents must also earn less than $4,300, and the person claiming them on a tax return must provide more than 50 percent of their overall financial support.

Those who haven’t received a payment are advised to use the IRS’s Get My Payment tool. 

The IRS is also encouraging Americans who don’t normally file taxes to file a 2020 tax return in order to receive all benefits from the pandemic relief bill, like the child tax credits, the earned income tax credit and the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit. 

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill. 

Image: Reuters

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