The third round of stimulus checks – up to $1,400 per person – will start going out this month, President Joe Biden said.
The Senate passed Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that includes a third round of stimulus payments. Even with a change in eligibility, Biden said over 85% of American households will receive a payment.
The stimulus package includes $1,400 payments for individuals and dependents and $2,800 for married couples. Individuals earning up to $75,000 and couples earning up to $150,000 would be eligible for the full payments with the amounts dropping incrementally above those levels before reaching the cutoff.
Previous stimulus payments included at least partial eligibility for individuals earning up to $100,000 or couples earning up to $200,000. The new stimulus package lowers that eligibility to individuals earning $80,000 or more or couples earning $160,000 or more.
An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated 11.8 million fewer adults and 4.6 fewer children would be eligible for payments. The bottom 60% of Americans by income wouldn’t see any difference in the size of checks they receive, the analysis noted.
The previous two COVID-19 stimulus packages included payments of $1,200 and $600, respectively.
When will payments start?
Once signed by Biden, the IRS could begin processing relief checks immediately. IRS officials said previously it would take about two weeks for it to begin seeing out the first payments to those with direct deposit information on file followed by mailing of paper checks and debit cards.
