The administration has been sending out regular stimulus checks ever since President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Act Bill in March this year. With a total allocation for various rescue plans, the $1.9T packages also include the $1,400 Economic Impact Payment, the direct stimulus support that has helped families in the tough times of the pandemic.
The IRS has sent out more than 163M checks totaling around $390B to individuals and families.
The Bill also expanded the Child Tax Credit payments that are set to begin a little more than a week from now on July 15, 2021. A weekly payment of $250 to $300 per child will go out to parents from 6 months till December 2021. That constitutes 50% of the payment, the rest will be given as a refund against the 2021 tax returns to be filed next year.
The direct payments, which also included the extension of the weekly federal unemployment check of $300, have been extended till September 6, 2021.
People In The Higher Income Group Also Got A Stimulus Check
An unusual fallout of the stimulus check payment was that many people who earned more than the threshold limit set up by the IRS also received stimulus checks. That included as many as 128,000 individuals and families whose 2020 tax returns showed that they had received an adjusted gross income of $200,000 and above.
One possibility is that such people received their stimulus check based on the 2019 returns. A significant rise in their 2020 income might have made them ineligible for the stimulus check, but it was a rare lucky break and they might not have to return the money. This also happened with the first stimulus check of $1,200 paid out last year.
Many couples with incomes higher than the cutoff figures benefitted. Many parents collected double the payment for their child dependents as they filed separately and claimed for the same child. But these were rare exceptions to the rule.
