WASHINGTON (WJW) — The Internal Revenue Service has begun issuing what are being called “plus-up stimulus checks” as part of the latest round of relief payments.
The latest round of stimulus checks provides qualifying Americans with $1,400. It also offers the plus-up, or supplemental payments, to citizens who previously received partial stimulus payments but can now demonstrate they were eligible for more.
“These ‘plus-up’ payments could include a situation where a person’s income dropped in 2020 compared to 2019, or a person had a new child or dependent on their 2020 tax return, and other situations,” the IRS said in a statement announcing the payments.
For instance, someone who filed individually and made $150,000 in 2019 would not have been eligible for a stimulus check during the pandemic because the salary would have exceeded requirements. If that person lost her job at the start of the pandemic and made less than $60,000 over the course of 2020, less than the $75,000 ceiling for individuals, she would be eligible for a plus-up payment after filing her 2020 taxes. If she had a child during that same year, there would be a plus-up stimulus payment for her new dependent as well.
Other Americans who could see plus-up payments hitting their bank accounts are eligible non-filers who filed taxes this year.
As 2019 and 2020 tax returns are processed, the IRS will continue to send out the supplemental payments.
The IRS announced last week that, as of April 1, more than 130 million stimulus payments – roughly $335 billion – had been issued to Americans as part of the recently-passed COVID-19 relief bill. The third batch included four million payments totaling $10 billion.
Individuals can check the Get My Payment tool on the IRS website to see the status of their stimulus and plus-up payments. Additional information on Economic Impact Payments is also available on the IRS website.
Could a fourth stimulus check be on the horizon?
Another round of stimulus checks could go a long way to combatting poverty in the United States. A recent analysis from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center found that a fourth stimulus check could lift more than 7 million people in the U.S. out of poverty.
The payments aren’t just widely popular among Americans who are now in the second year of a deadly COVID-19 pandemic, but are also seen favorably by the president, who has claimed that “economists left, right and center” support ambitious relief spending to shorten the country’s recovery time.
In early March, a group of 10 Democrats sent a letter to President Biden asking for “recurring” payments to be part of the administration’s Build Back Better long-term economic plan.
Experts say it’s unlikely that Americans will receive a fourth round of stimulus checks as the country becomes increasingly vaccinated and states turn to reopening their economies. That is not to say that they won’t receive economic help from the Biden administration as people continue to struggle during the pandemic – only that the aid may take a different form.
Under Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package, families will receive a boost to the child tax credit – $3,600 for every child under the age of 6 and $3,000 for every child ages 6 to 17. Unlike the previous credit, which was $2,000 for most taxpayers, the new benefit will also be distributed in periodic payments from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2021.
Eligible Americans could also see regular payments in the form of the federal unemployment insurance, which has been extended until Sept. 6 at up to $300 per week under the American Rescue Plan.
