Who Qualifies For The Third Stimulus Check
Millions of Americans who were eligible for the $600 second stimulus checks could qualify for the third round of stimulus payments up to $1,400. However, many high-earning taxpayers who were eligible for previous stimulus checks are now excluded. The plan narrows income eligibility to exclude individuals earning over $80,000 and couples making over $160,000:
- Singles phase out at AGIs between $75,000 and $80,000.
- Heads of household phase out at AGIs between $112,500 and 120,000.
- Couples phase out at AGIs between $150,000 and $160,000.
Keep in mind that this is different from the sliding scale that was used to determine eligibility for previous stimulus payments. The IRS reduced second stimulus checks by 5% for the total amount made over the AGI limit. This means that payments went down by $5 for every $100 over the limit.
The table below breaks down third stimulus payments based on narrower income ranges for singles and joint tax filers:
| $1,400 Stimulus Checks With Narrower Income Ranges |
| Single AGI |
| $174,000 and up | $0 |
If you want to get a specific breakdown, SmartAssets third stimulus check calculator will give you an estimate based on your filing status, AGI and dependents.
Still Living Paycheck To Paycheck
Some top economists have called for more direct aid to Americans. More than 150 economists, including former Obama administration economist Jason Furman, signed a letter last year that argued for “recurring direct stimulus payments, lasting until the economy recovers.”
Although the economy is improving, millions of people continue to suffer from reduced income and have not been able to tap government aid programs, Nasif said. Only 4 in 10 jobless workers actually received unemployment aid, according to a from economist Eliza Forsythe.
Many people never applied for unemployment benefits because they didn’t think they were eligible, while others may have given up due to long waits and other issues.
“You’ll see reports about how the economy is starting to grow, but there are a lot of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, and for a lot of them the government relief programs haven’t been able to help,” said Greg Nasif, political director of Humanity Forward.
What If I Dont Receive My Direct Deposit
Those who dont receive their direct deposit payments should look out for either a check or a debit card in the mail.
To speed delivery of the payments to reach as many people as soon as possible, some payments will be sent in the mail as a debit card. The form of payment for the third stimulus payment may differ from the first two, the IRS says.
Residents can check the status of their latest stimulus payment using the Get My Payment tool available at the IRS website, which is being updated on a regular basis.
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Where Is Your Payment Being Sent
The IRS will issue a check by mail or direct deposit based on the data the agency already has in its systems. Taxpayers will receive their check through their bank account if their direct deposit information is already on file. Otherwise, the payment will be sent by mail.
If that bank account on file is closed or no longer active, the bank will return the deposit and the individual may be issued a check instead.
What To Do If Your Ssdi Payment Is Late
If you are worried that your payment was stolen, you should contact the SSA immediately. Otherwise, they request that you wait at least three business days after the date you should have received your check to contact your local office or call them at 1-800-772-1213 on Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
You should receive your first payment within 90 days of being approved for benefits. If you do not get it within this time period, contact your Social Security disability lawyer if you have one or the SSA.
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How Will A Stimulus Payment Affect Social Security Disability
Whether you receive benefits through SSI or SSDI, a stimulus payment should not affect your eligibility to continue receiving them. SSDI does not take into consideration the assets or income you receive that is not from working or through self-employment in determining eligibility, so a stimulus payment would not affect your SSDI benefits.
SSI recipients, who must comply with strict limits on income and financial resources, would normally be concerned about receiving a substantial payment, such as a stimulus check. However, Social Security has taken steps to protect people who receive stimulus payments while receiving disability benefits through SSI.
According to Social Security, it will not consider the payments as income for SSI eligibility purposes. Do not be concerned about the payment affecting countable resources you are permitted to own while on SSI. It will not count as a resource for 12 months.
Discuss eligibility concerns with a disability advocate
When questions arise about SSI or SSDI, a Social Security disability advocate at London Disability is your best source for advice you can trust and superior representation. Whether applying for benefits, appealing an adverse determination, or any questions concerning Social Security disability, speak with an SSD advocate.
Social Security Recipients To Get Third Stimulus Check Next Week
Millions of seniors who didn’t file a 2019 or 2020 tax return could receive a third stimulus check next week. After receiving data from the Social Security Administration on March 25, the IRS says it has already started reviewing, validating, and testing the information needed to process third stimulus payments for approximately 30 million seniors. Assuming there are no problems, the IRS expects to finish that work and begin processing payments by the end of this week. These seniors will generally get their stimulus payment in the same way they get their regular Social Security benefits. Since most of these payments will be paid electronically through direct deposits or to existing Direct Express debit cards, the funds should be available on April 7 for many seniors.
- SEE MORE Third Stimulus Check Calculator
Third stimulus payments are generally based on information found on your 2019 or 2020 tax return. However, since some Social Security recipients don’t file tax returns, the IRS didn’t have the necessary information in its computer systems to process third-round stimulus payments. That’s why the tax agency needed data from the SSA to send out checks to seniors who haven’t file a recent tax return.
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Why Can’t I Get On The Get My Payment Site
The IRS said this can happen if people don’t provide security answers that match the tax agency’s information over the course of several attempts to log in. The IRS asks for personal information such as a Social Security number, birthdate and address.
“If you can’t verify your identity, you won’t be able to use Get My Payment,” the IRS said. “Don’t contact the IRS for assistance with a lockout IRS assisters can’t unlock your account.”
However, the site will allow you to try again after 24 hours.
If I Owe Back Child Support Will I Still Get A Payment
Yes. If you or your spouse owes back child support, your stimulus payment cannot be garnished to pay that debt. The same is true if you owe federal or state debts: your stimulus payment cannot be garnished. Your payment wont be levied by the IRS, either.
Although the second and third stimulus payments cant be garnished for unpaid child support, the amounts can be garnished if you dont get money up front and need to claim the credits on your taxes.
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How Does One Calculate Adjusted Gross Income
Your Adjusted Gross Income is the key to determine your third stimulus check. It is calculated based on your latest tax filings. It is the amount from your total income that is taxable by the IRS.
Your income in a year from wages, capital gains, interest income, dividends, alimony, royalties, retirement distributions, and rental income are your gross income.
Your AGI or taxable income is the allowable deductions allowed on your gross income. They may include alimony payments, student loan interest, and retirement contribution. It is the decisive factor for how much the authority owes you, plus the number of your dependents and your filing status, whether joint or single.
Stimulus Checks For Dependents Va Beneficiaries
Payments to Department of Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who dont normally file taxes and who didnt use the IRS online Non-Filers tool last year started going out April 9, with a payable date of April 14. The batch of 2 million stimulus payments, worth more than $3.4 million, also went to eligible people who had not filed a tax return until this year and didnt use the IRS Non-Filers Tool last year. Some of these payments were what the IRS calls plus-up payments to those who got stimulus payments based on their 2019 returns and then filed 2020 returns.
The third round of stimulus checks, authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act, provides a maximum of $1,400 to eligible individuals, $2,800 to couples and $1,400 to dependents. Unlike the previous two rounds, theres no age limit on stimulus checks for dependents, so its possible to get a check for a dependent college-age student or an aged parent. Because dependents are claimed on tax returns, the IRS can use that information to send out stimulus payments for dependents to tax filers.
People who do not file tax returns currently, however, have no mechanism for reporting their dependents to the IRS in order to get a third-round dependent payment. Thus, the IRS recommends that all nonfilers with dependents, including many federal beneficiaries, file a 2020 tax return in order to get their stimulus payments for dependents. The deadline for filing a 2020 tax return has been extended to May 17.
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Some Americans Could Get $1800 In 2022
Those who added a dependent may not be the only ones to get another payment from the government. Many other parents could also be entitled to more funds.
See, the American Rescue Plan Act also temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit for the 2021 tax year. Prior to 2021, the credit was for a maximum of $2,000 per child and only $1,400 of it was refundable. The credit had to be claimed on your taxes and you’d reduce your tax bill with it or could get up to $1,400 back even if you didn’t have at least $2,000 in tax liability.
The American Rescue Plan Act raised the amount of the credit to $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 for children aged 6 to 17. And it’s now fully refundable. The IRS was also ordered to deliver half of this expanded credit at a rate of $300 or $250 per child deposited into bank accounts from July through December of 2021.
This means half the expanded credit was delivered already for most people. But eligible parents can claim the rest of the credit they are entitled to when they file their 2021 taxes. You could be eligible for a credit worth up to $1,800 per child that reduces your tax bill or that comes in the form of a larger tax refund.
Parents who added a dependent to their family in 2021 may have also missed out on the full $3,600 or $3,000 expanded Child Tax Credit they became entitled to last year. They could receive this money along with their $1,400 stimulus check when filing their returns for the year.
Criteria For Qualification For The Third Stimulus Check
The rules were a bit different from the previous round of the stimulus payments. Your eligibility for the stimulus check, and the size of the payment, rested on if you were a dependent by law. It also hinges on your AGI from the 2019 tax returns.
Your AGI could be affected by your taxable investments or if are a pensioner, thereby affecting the eligibility for the stimulus check. Other factors are interest earned from a bank account, though interest earned from bonds that are tax-exempt will not be calculated. It isnt part of your AGI. The rules are a bit different for the third stimulus check. Read on.
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What The Irs Says
In a statement on Monday, the IRS advised it is “working directly with the Social Security Administration, the Railroad Retirement Board, and the Veterans Administration to obtain updated 2021 information for recipients to ensure it is sending automatic payments to as many people as possible.
“More information about when these payments will be made will be provided on IRS.gov as soon as it becomes available,” the statement said.
Those who didn’t file a tax return but received Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits , Railroad Retirement benefits, Supplemental Security Income or Veterans Affairs benefits will “automatically” be paid their stimulus funds.
However, some recipients of federal benefits may need to file a 2020 tax return even if they don’t usually file taxes.
“If your third payment does not include a payment for your qualified dependent who did not receive a third payment, you must file a 2020 tax return to be considered for an additional third payment even if you don’t normally file,” the IRS explained on March 4.
The federal body said Monday: “People in this group should file a 2020 tax return to be considered for an additional payment for their dependent as quickly as possible.”
When Can Social Security Recipients Expect The Stimulus Check
Even though there has been a delay getting the third payments to around 30 million people who receive benefits from Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, the Railroad Retirement Board and Veterans Affairs, because the Social Security Administration did not send the IRS the necessary paperwork.
But the IRS should have received the information it needed to send the payments last Thursday and announced that many Social Security beneficiaries and many others who don’t normally file taxes will start getting their payments by April 7.
Residents can check the status of their payment using the Get My Payment tool on the IRS website.
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What If My Payment Doesnt Come
Contact the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 or find a Social Security office near you if your direct deposit or debit card funds arent made on time. The SSA asks that you wait three days before reaching out to them, however.
The risk of your check being stolen is virtually eliminated if you use the Direct Deposit option because the money is transmitted electronically and directly to your bank account.
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Stimulus Checks Cause Some To Lose Disability Benefits
Stimulus payments arent supposed to count against eligibility for social insurance programs like disability benefits, but some people might have lost benefits because of too much money in their bank accounts.
The Social Security Administration has suspended disability benefits for some Supplemental Security Income recipients because the stimulus payments pushed their bank accounts above the programs archaic $2,000 limit, according to legal aid attorneys.
The whole point of stimulus was to help people who were being harmed during COVID, and now theres going to be people facing a cessation of benefits and theyre going to end up in a worse place, said Michelle Spadafore, senior supervising attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group, citing several cases in New York that shes aware of.
Its likely that relatively few of the programs nearly 8 million beneficiaries have been affected. The program provides $794 monthly to people with disabilities and limited resources who cant earn much on their own. Most people on SSI would have been eligible for full stimulus payments from the three coronavirus relief bills Congress passed.
Everyone on SSI is subject to the resource limit, which hasnt been updated since 1989. Its $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for couples, with exclusions for a home, a car and certain other assets.
Morris thinks its ridiculous, and that losing $79 of his monthly income could make it hard to pay his electric bill.
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Will People Receive A Paper Check Or A Debit Card
The IRS encourages people to check Get My Payment for additional information the tool on IRS.gov will be updated on a regular basis starting Monday, March 15. People who don’t receive a direct deposit should watch their mail for either a paper check or a debit card. To speed delivery of the payments to reach as many people as soon as possible, some payments will be sent in the mail as a debit card. The form of payment for the third stimulus payment may differ from the first two.
People should watch their mail carefully. The Economic Impact Payment Card, or EIP Card, will come in a white envelope prominently displaying the U.S. Department of the Treasury seal. It has the Visa name on the front of the Card and the issuing bank, MetaBank®, N.A. on the back of the card. Information included with the card will explain that this is an Economic Impact Payment. More information about these cards is available at EIPcard.com.
What If A Beneficiary Alleges A Representative Payee Misused The Economic Impact Payment
Date: March 26, 2021
Because an EIP is not a Social Security or SSI benefit, SSA does not have authority to investigate or determine whether the EIP has been misused. However, if SSA receives an allegation that the EIP was not used on behalf of the beneficiary, SSA may decide to investigate for possible misuse of the beneficiarys Social Security or SSI benefit payments. SSA may also determine the representative payee is no longer suitable and appoint a new representative payee.
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