A second round of stimulus checks may soon reach the bank accounts of millions of Americans after President Donald Trump signed a $ 900 billion economic aid package on Sunday night. However, in signing the bill, Trump once again asked that his $ 600 stimulus checks be increased to $ 2,000 per person.
On Monday, the House will vote to increase the value of exemption checks to $ 2,000 per adult and $ 600 for children. The Senate is also expected to “start the voting process that raises checks to $ 2,000,” Trump said on Sunday.
The president’s last-minute request for bigger stimulus checks put the aid package at risk, as Trump had signaled that he would not sign the bill without $ 2,000 directed to each eligible adult. But now that the president has signed the bill – which still instructs the federal government to send $ 600 in individual stimulus payments – it raises questions about whether Americans could, however, see a greater amount deposited in their bank accounts.
To be sure, millions of Americans could use bigger checks. Nearly 6 out of 10 consumers said they suffered a financial setback due to the pandemic in late November, according to a recent TransUnion study, which also found that 40% of these families were betting on the prospect of another stimulus check to help them to pay your bills.
At that point, people are more likely to still receive checks for $ 600, according to Wall Street analysts.
That’s because Congress would need to pass a separate bill to increase stimulus checks – and enough Republican lawmakers are unlikely to vote in favor of higher payments, according to Hunter Hammond of Heights Securities in a research note from December 28th.
Even so, he said that the chances of passing $ 2,000 checks have increased – but still remain minimal: “In total, we assign a 30% probability (over 10%) that an account that increases direct payments to $ 2,000 will be sanctioned this week, “wrote Hammond.
It would be the second time lawmakers have sought to increase checks to $ 2,000 per person, after a December 24 vote in the House during a pro forma session. The effort was blocked by House Republicans.
Another $ 385 billion needed
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Sunday for Republicans to back bigger checks. Republicans resisted the bigger checks because of their cost, which would reach $ 530 billion, or about $ 385 billion more than Congress approved with the $ 600 checks, according to Heights Securities.
“The president must immediately ask Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and join him and the Democrats in supporting our autonomous legislation to increase direct pay checks to $ 2,000, which will be taken to the floor tomorrow,” he tweeted. Pelosi.
The $ 600 checks directed by the relief bill would account for half of the $ 1,200 directed to most adults in the first round of stimulus checks. Critics said the aid would be useful, but not enough to help families that have suffered loss of income or jobs since the coronavirus pandemic it paralyzed the economy in March and caused an increase in unemployment.
What about the time for checks?
Before Trump’s reaction, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted on December 21 that some Americans could start receiving the funds as early as the week of December 28.
Despite the delay in signing the bill, the Treasury Department is working to get checks deposited into people’s accounts this week, although the timing may change, according to the Washington Post.
The IRS will rely on the same bank information provided by tax returns and through the agency’s “Get My Payment” portal, which allows people to enter their bank information. The IRS website says that its “Get My Payment” portal is currently not open, but that it “continues to monitor and prepare for new legislation related to Economic Impact Payments”, which is the term the IRS uses for checks from stimulus.
What about $ 600 checks?
The checks would represent half the amount directed at most U.S. families in the spring, when the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (or CARES Act) authorized checks for $ 1,200 for eligible adults.
However, according to the bill passed by Congress this month, a group of people would receive more money in the second round of stimulus checks than in the first: dependent children, who would receive the same $ 600 checks as adults, before $ 500 checks that children received under the CARES Act in the spring.
Single people who earn up to $ 75,000 will receive $ 600, while couples who earn up to $ 150,000 will receive $ 1,200.
The second round of checks would have the same type of revenue elimination as in the CARES Act, with payments of stimulus checks reduced to earnings above $ 75,000 per single person or $ 150,000 per couple.
The amount of payment that individuals receive would be reduced by $ 5 for every $ 100 of income earned over these limits, according to the House’s appropriations committee. This is similar to the CARES Act, but fewer taxpayers with higher income would qualify for checks under this formula compared to the previous bill.
The second stimulus check would be completely eliminated for single people who earn more than $ 87,000 or couples who earn more than $ 174,000 – compared to the phasing out of the CARES Act for singles who earn more than $ 99,000 and for couples who earn more than $ 198,000.
To check how much you can receive, you can go to the second Omni Calculator stimulus calculator for an estimate.
$ 600 for each “dependent” child
In addition to the smaller stimulus checks for adults, the other major change in the bill approved by Congress is the amount provided for dependent children: $ 600 for each child, compared to $ 500 in the CARES Act.
However, the bill states that $ 600 would go to each dependent child under the age of 17, meaning that adults who are nevertheless claimed as dependents – such as college students and older high school students – do not would qualify for checks.
Adult dependents, such as elderly people who are declared dependent on their adult children’s tax returns, would also not be eligible for checks. Excluding college students and other adult dependents was a matter of debate with the first round of checks, with some families arguing that older dependents should also qualify for payments.
A family of two parents with two dependent children can receive up to $ 2,400 under the provision, lawmakers said.
“Mixed status” families
Couples that include a immigrant without Green Card it would also qualify for checks, a provision that is retroactive to the CARES Act, the summary said.
This is important for many families because the first round of stimulus checks was granted only to US citizens or immigrants with resident alien status, also known as a Green Card. Legal immigrants without a Green Card, as well as undocumented immigrants, were excluded – and American citizens married to immigrants without a Green Card were also excluded, as were their children, even though dependent young people are citizens.
Deny checks to US citizens due to marital or parental relationship with an immigrant lawsuits brought about earlier this year on what the plaintiffs claimed was an unconstitutional action.
What about Social Security beneficiaries?
A failure in the first stimulus payments was a slower implementation for Social Security beneficiaries, as well as Supplementary Pension Income beneficiaries, beneficiaries of the Ferrovia Retirement Council and beneficiaries of the Veterans Administration. Since some of these recipients do not file tax returns – which the IRS trusted to distribute the first stimulus payments – millions of them waited weeks or months to receive their checks.
But the new bill would ensure that these recipients would receive $ 600 checks automatically, according to Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who worked on a bipartisan stimulus bill that became the framework for the most recent negotiations.
“I am particularly happy that the final text of the aid package includes my bipartisan account to ensure that beneficiaries of Social Security, Supplementary Pension Income and certain VA benefits will receive these payments automatically,” said Hassan in an email to CBS MoneyWatch.
This means that millions of Social Security, SSI, VA and Retirement Insurance benefits would not risk losing payment, she added.