The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department said Tuesday evening that they are beginning to make direct deposits of the second round of economic impact payments as soon as Tuesday night for some taxpayers and will continue doing so through next week. They will start mailing out paper checks on Wednesday to taxpayers who don’t have their direct deposit information on file.
The rollout of the checks, which will amount to $600 for single taxpayers and $1,200 for married couples and $600 for each additional child, comes after President Trump signed the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 on Sunday after a last-minute demand that Congress raise the $600 amount to $2,000. The House voted Monday to pass separate legislation known as the CASH Act that would raise the amount to $2,000, but it was blocked in the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department and the IRS are moving forward with the stimulus payments. “Economic impact payments to eligible Americans and their families,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin in a statement. “These payments are an integral part of our commitment to providing vital additional economic relief to the American people during this unprecedented time.”
Taxpayers who have adjusted gross income for 2019 of up to $75,000 for individuals and up to $150,000 for married couples filing joint returns and surviving spouses will receive the full amount of the payment. For filers with income above those amounts, the payment amount will be reduced.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Massachusetts, denounced McConnell for blocking approval of the CASH Act and instead introducing different legislation Tuesday that combines the $2,000 checks with unrelated provisions regarding internet policy and elections, which Trump had also demanded.
Patty Starr is president and CEO of Health Action Council and is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the organization--build stronger, healthier communities where business can thrive.
Since joining the Health Action Council staff in 2013, she has transformed the organization yielding broad national expansion and seven consecutive years of
growth. Patty is a member of the Advisory Board at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Board of Directors for Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO). She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Better Health Partnership, Ohio Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative and Health Action Council before becoming executive director in 2013.
Craig Kurtzweil is the chief data & analytics officer for UnitedHealthcare's commercial business. In this role, he leverages the nation's largest health care data set to identify and share insights that can help people and care providers make more informed health care decisions, make health care more affordable for everyone and improve outcomes. This includes exploring new ways to apply data through machine learning and artificial intelligence, creating the next generation of health care analytics and making data a differentiator in the marketplace for the company.
Craig joined UnitedHealthcare in 2005. Since then, he has focused on enhancing how data and analytics support UnitedHealthcare's largest employer customers. His team works with large and complex clients that require a broad view of data, ranging from cost and utilization to productivity and disability exposure. As part of this work, Craig formed the Center for Advanced Analytics to focus on analytic innovations that change the way we evaluate health care value.
Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, Craig served as an actuarial consultant at Deloitte.
Trinity Davis, managing director at 360 Privacy, spent 18 years in protective services, focused in the UHNW private family office and tech sector.
He built and led cross-functional teams in executive protection, residential security, travel security management and protective intelligence, spending the last six years in Silicon Valley working in social media and fintech. He moved to 360 Privacy in 2022 to focus on educating the industry on digital executive protection and how physical threats begin in the digital landscape.
“Senator McConnell easily could have held a vote on the CASH Act today,” Neal said in a statement. “Instead, he blocked Senate Democrats’ attempt to pass the measure and is combining the $2,000 payments with policies that have nothing to do with providing relief to families. This unwieldy Frankenstein bill serves no purpose but to make it even less likely that the House-approved aid reaches Americans in need.”
As with the first round of payments under the CARES Act, most recipients will receive the stimulus payments by direct deposit. For Social Security and other beneficiaries who received the first round of payments via Direct Express, they will receive this second payment the same way.
The IRS said that anyone who received the first round of payments earlier this year but didn’t get a payment by direct deposit will generally receive a check or, in some instances, a debit card. For those in this category, the payments will end in January. If additional legislation is enacted to provide for an additional amount, the economic impact payments that have been issued will be topped up as quickly as possible.
Eligible individuals who didn’t receive a stimulus payment this year — either the first or the second payment — will be able to claim it when they file their 2020 taxes in 2021. The IRS is urging taxpayers who didn’t receive a payment this year to review the eligibility criteria when they file their 2020 taxes; many people, including recent college graduates, may be eligible to claim it. People will see the economic impact payments, or EIPs, referred to as the Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC) on Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR since the EIPs are an advance payment of the RRC.
Payments will be automatic for any eligible taxpayers who filed a 2019 tax return, those who receive Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits as well as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who didn’t file a tax return. Payments will also be automatic for anybody who managed to successfully register for the original stimulus payment online at IRS.gov using the agency’s Non-Filers tool by Nov. 21, 2020 or who submitted a simplified tax return that's been processed by the IRS.
“Throughout this challenging year, the IRS has worked around the clock to provide economic impact payments and critical taxpayer services to the American people,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement. “We are working swiftly to distribute this second round of payments as quickly as possible. This work continues throughout the holidays and into the new year as we prepare for the upcoming filing season. We urge everyone to visit IRS.gov in the coming days for the latest information on these payments and for important information and assistance with filing their 2021 taxes.”
One snag for many young taxpayers is that if they’re being claimed as a dependent on their parents’ tax returns, they won’t be able to receive a stimulus payment. That will affect many young people who were forced to move back in with their parents or are being supported by them as a result of the economic fallout from the pandemic. Generally, U.S. citizens and resident aliens who aren’t eligible to be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s income tax return will be eligible for the stimulus payment.
