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Another 2.3 million eligible Americans were issued stimulus payments by the IRS, including “plus-up” adjustments, while tax credit payments for 36 million qualifying families go out in July. There is talk of a 4th round.
When the federal government issued the third round of stimulus payments to Americans back in March, it prioritized which individuals would get their checks first. The IRS first made payments to people who had already filed their 2019 or 2020 tax returns, mostly because it made verifying eligibility based on income much quicker, as well as provided them with where to mail checks or make direct deposits into bank accounts, CBS reported.
People who still needed to file tax returns, or those who weren’t required to file tax returns, or who claimed adjustments on their payments, have had to wait all this time for the IRS to process their stimulus payments.
Now, individuals who have still been waiting to receive payments and those who received the smaller amount of money than they were entitled to in the previous checks, can finally expect to receive a stimulus payment soon.
Out of the 2.3 million payments the IRS sent out, the first group of people includes 900,000 checks for those who recently filed a tax return. These are those individuals for whom the IRS did not previously have information to issue a check.
The other 1.1 million payments are “plus-up” adjustments that are going out to people who received smaller payments than they were qualified for. They will receive a bigger check based on their recently processed 2020 tax return, according to the IRS.
The IRS that from the 2.3 million payments sent, 1.2 million have been made via direct deposit, while the remaining 1.1 million were mailed as paper checks.
Qualifying families, of which there are 36 million, will be receiving payments of $300 for each child under 6 and $250 for each child between 6-17 as part of the expanded Child Tax Credit, as part of the American Rescue Act, which directs the IRS to send the recurring monthly checks from July through December for eligible parents.
As millions of Americans struggle to recover from the devastation wrought by the pandemic, with many still unable to get back to full-time employment, some lawmakers are calling for a fourth round of stimulus payments. In addition, over Democratic 20 Senators signed a letter that was sent to President Joe Biden on March 30, supporting the idea of recurring stimulus payments. The Senators argued that the one-off $1400 payment, issued in the third round, won’t tide people over for long.
However, many experts believe that getting lawmakers to approve and issue another round of stimulus payments is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
