In December, the U.S. Congress passed a COVID-19 relief package that included another round of stimulus checks. It doesn’t matter if you already received the $1200 check in the spring of 2020, you will still receive the more recent check. This may leave you wondering what to expect, both in how much you will receive and when you will receive it.
As far as the amount of money that is being sent in this round of stimulus checks, $600 has been allotted per person. It is only half of what was sent out shortly after the pandemic started in 2020. On December 28, there was legislation that passed through the House of Representatives to increase the amount of this check to $2000 but the Senate has not voted on it yet. Analysts are saying that there isn’t enough support for the $2000, so a $600 check is being sent out in the initial package.
Any adult who made less than $75,000 a year is eligible for the $600 check. If a family has dependents under the age of 17, they will receive a $600 check for each of those dependents. That is a little more than the $500 offered in the initial round of stimulus checks.
If you make more than $75,000, every $100 earned over that amount will decrease the amount of your stimulus check by five dollars. If you are single and made over $87,000 or if the combined household income is over $174,000, a stimulus check will not be arriving.
The $600 stimulus checks began to be distributed late in December and all of them are set to be sent out before January 15. Most people are going to automatically receive the money in their bank account but if you didn’t sign up for a direct deposit, you will get a check in the mail.
It is possible to track your stimulus check status by using the “Get My Payment” portal on the IRS website. Access to the webpage is spotty because of high demand. Questions can also be asked via a phone call to 800-919-9835, although getting a live person on the other end of the phone is not always an easy thing to do.