Officials: Stimulus Payments Will Start Being Sent Out Over Weekend
The process of doling out dollars is now underway as the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service send out the stimulus payments included in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
The first batch of $1,400 stimulus payments was processed Friday, according to Reuters.
Individuals who have set up direct deposit will get the money first.
Over the next few weeks, checks will be mailed to those who do not get their money electronically.
The amount that individuals or families get will be keyed to either the 2019 or 2020 tax returns, whichever was filed later, or data non-filers have given to the IRS.
Individuals who do not file taxes but received Social Security and Railroad Retirement Board benefits, Supplemental Security Income or Veteran benefits in 2020, will also get checks.
Overall, payment to individuals makes up about $400 billion of the bill’s massive outlay.
This round of payments will provide $1,400 per person to individuals earning up to $75,000 annually and couples making up to $150,000. Individuals earning between $75,0000 and $80,000 will receive less, while those over $80,000 get nothing.
Couples with incomes between $150,000 and $160,000 will also see some money, but not the full amount, while those earning over $160,000 are not eligible for the cash.
The bill includes more than direct cash.
“Working families will get $1,400 per individual from a third stimulus check, plus they will benefit from a muscled-up child tax credit [of up to $3,600 per child],” said Andrew Stettner, of the progressive Century Foundation, according to CBS.
“That is real aid that can help reverse the unprecedented economic inequities laid bare and exacerbated by the pandemic.”
The stimulus package was also a windfall for governments, according to Linda Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard.
The government pot totals $350 billion “to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the public health emergency,” she said.
Of that, $195 billion goes to states, territories and tribal governments and $130 billion will flow to cities and counties.
The bill also sends $130 billion to K-12 school districts and $40 billion to colleges.
The college pot of dollars is also required to be used, in part, to pay students for what the bill calls emergency costs of food and housing and computer equipment.
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