3rd stimulus – BigJohn Entertainment

3rd Stimulus and when will you get it

A third round of stimulus payments is expected to be on the way later this month.

The payments are included in a sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that was approved by the Senate on Saturday and could be signed by President Joe Biden soon after the House takes a final vote, now expected to be on Wednesday.

Roughly 90% of American households will be eligible, according to an estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model.

Here’s what you need to know:

How much will you get?

The payments are worth up to $1,400 per person, including dependents. So a couple with two children could receive up to $5,600. Unlike prior rounds, families will now receive the additional money for adult dependents over the age of 17.

The full amount goes to individuals earning less than $75,000 of adjusted gross income, heads of households (like single parents) earning less than $112,500 and married couples earning less than $150,000. But then the payments gradually phase out as income goes up.

Do you make too much money to be eligible?

Individuals who earn at least $80,000 a year of adjusted gross income, heads of households who earn at least $120,000 and married couples who earn at least $160,000 will be completely cut off from the third round of stimulus payments — regardless of how many children they have.

On what year are the income limits based?

The income thresholds will be based on a taxpayer’s most recent return. If they’ve already filed a 2020 return by the time the payment is sent, the IRS will base eligibility on their 2020 adjusted gross income. If not, it will be based on the 2019 return.

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When can you expect the money?

People could start seeing the payments hit their bank accounts within days of Biden signing the bill — which is expected to happen soon after the House votes on Wednesday on the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.

For the previous pandemic stimulus bill, the IRS started sending out the second round of payments three days after then-President Donald Trump signed that legislation in late December. But it’s possible that tax filing season, which is underway, could slow down the process this time.

The payments do not all go out at once. Those whose bank information is on file with the IRS would likely get the money first, because it would be directly deposited into their accounts. Others may receive paper checks or prepaid debit cards in the mail.

You got the last stimulus check. Will you get this one?

Not necessarily. While the same people who received the full amounts in the previous two rounds of stimulus payments will likely get the full amount this time, the checks will phase out faster now — cutting off people at a lower income level.

The first round, which was worth up to $1,200, excluded individuals who earned at least $99,000, head of household filers with one child who earned more than $136,500 and married couples without children earning more than $198,000 — but families earning a little more were still eligible if they had children. About 160 million payments were delivered, with 94% of families receiving the money.

The second round, which was worth up to $600, also phased out a little faster because the full amount was smaller. It phased out entirely at $87,000 for single filers without children and $174,000 for those married filing jointly without children. Again, those earning a little more were still eligible if they had children. About 158 million payments went out, with 92% of families receiving them.

The payments have been based on a taxpayer’s most recent tax return. So those who have filed new returns since last March could fall into or out of eligibility if their incomes changed.

Who else isn’t eligible?

Undocumented immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers remain ineligible for the payments. But their spouses and children are eligible as long as they have Social Security numbers. They were excluded from the first round.

Will you owe back some money to the IRS if you earned more in 2020?

No. If your 2019 income was less than your pay in 2020 you will not owe back any money.

But if your income fell in 2020, filing your tax return now — before the payments go out — may mean you’ll get a bigger check.

What if you never got the last payment but believe you’re eligible?

Most people receive the payments automatically, but there are many who missed out — for a variety of reasons. An estimated 8 million eligible people didn’t get the first round of payments that were delivered last year.

Many of these people have very low incomes and are not normally required to file tax returns. Last year, the IRS set up an online portal where they could register for the money. It’s not yet clear whether the agency will open up the portal again for the third round of payments.

People who have moved or changed bank accounts since the last time they filed tax returns may have also missed out.

Those who were due money during the first two rounds of payments and did not receive it can claim it as a tax credit, known as the Recovery Rebate Credit, on their 2020 tax returns.

Biden says 3rd Stimulus will be $1400 period. Updates Here …

President Joe Biden on Friday said he would not reduce the proposed $1,400 direct payments as final House passage of a budget resolution meant lawmakers could start drafting the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus legislation.

Speaking at the White House, Biden said the new checks, combined with the $600 payments approved in December. would give most Americans the $2,000 he promised. A group of 10 House Republicans proposed reducing the latest round of checks to $1,000.

“I’m not cutting the size of the checks,” Biden said. “They’re going to be $1,400. Period. That’s what the American people were promised.”

Biden spoke after the House approved a budget resolution mostly along party lines, 219-209, allowing whatever bill Congress produces to be passed by majority vote, without the threat of a filibuster.

While no Republican in either the House or Senate voted for the resolution, several GOP or bipartisan amendments were included. Biden said he was willing to negotiate with the Republicans for their support, but wanted quick approval of the bill. The goal is to pass it by mid-March, when the current extended unemployment insurance benefits expire.

“I’ve told both Republicans and Democrats that’s my preference: to work together,” Biden said. “But if I have to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill that’s up to the crisis, that’s an easy choice. I’m going to help the American people who are hurting now.”

Adding a sense of urgency Friday was a U.S. Labor Department report showing that the economy added just 49,000 jobs last month after losing 227,000 jobs in December.

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“It’s clear that there’s a need for urgent and sustained action for the duration of this crisis,” said Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

In its recent report, Moody’s Analytics said Biden’s plan “would provide a large boost to the economy if passed into law” and help create 7.5 million jobs this year and another 2.5 million next year, fully recovering all the jobs lost since the pandemic hit.

While Biden has refused to break apart the package, a bipartisan group of more moderate lawmakers recommended Friday that he do just that. The Problem Solvers Caucus, co-chaired by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, called for quick approval of $160 billion for vaccines, while the discussions continued on rest of the bill.

“We simply cannot afford to wait weeks upon weeks to get more vaccines out the door,” said Gottheimer, D-5th Dist.

Gov. Phil Murphy, meanwhile, joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in laying claim to a portion of the proposal’s $350 billion in state and local aid commensurate with the fact that both states were among the ones hardest hit by the coronavirus when it first came to this country.

“We were clobbered,” Murphy said.

Cuomo said that when a disaster strikes, the areas most damaged get the most aid. That should happen here, he said.

“When a state gets hit by a hurricane, that state gets relief,” Cuomo said. “It’s not that every state gets relief. Our state and our region paid the highest price.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez will be one of the senators helping to write the formula for distributing federal COVID assistance to state and local governments.

“The governors were absolutely right that we should be treating COVID aid like federal disaster assistance after a hurricane in which you target resources to the hardest-hit areas,” Menendez said. “New Jersey has been one of the hardest-hit states and we need the federal government to step up in a big way.”

SOURCE: Jonathan D. Salant AT https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/02/third-stimulus-check-update-biden-says-payments-will-be-1400-period-now-congress-will-draft-legislation-heres-the-latest.html

3rd Stimulus Check UPDATE!

The U.S. Senate early Friday morning approved a budget resolution that will allow passage of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus stimulus bill and also agreed that it would restrict high-income taxpayers from claiming the $1,400 direct payments.

Lawmakers worked through the night on a bevy of amendments to the resolution, which will trigger a procedure known as reconciliation and Democrats to pass a $1.9 trillion package by majority vote without the threat of a filibuster. The final vote was cast just after 5:30 a.m.

Adopting several amendments proposed by Republicans would allow President Joe Biden to claim that the stimulus package was bipartisan even if every GOP senator eventually votes no.

On one bipartisan proposal, senators voted, 99-1, in favor of provision that could exclude wealthier households from any payments. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cast the only no vote.

The amendment does not define “upper income” but in the first stimulus bill, individuals earning $75,000 or less and married couples earning $150,000 or less received the full $1,200, while individuals making up to $99,000 and married couples making up to $198,000 received a smaller check based on income.

“I don’t think a single person on this floor would disagree to target the relief to our neighbors who are struggling,” said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. “There are other families who have not missed a single paycheck as a result of this pandemic. It does not make sense to send a check to those individuals.”

The amendment was proposed by many of the same senators, including Manchin and Maine Republican Susan Collins, who worked together on a stimulus bill that led to the $900 billion measure that became law last December.

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“The question before us is quite simple,” Collins said. “Do we want stimulus checks to go to households with family incomes of $300,000? Or do we want to target the assistance to struggling families who need the help and provide a boost for the economy?”

Collins also was part of a group of 10 Senate Republicans who proposed a $618 billion stimulus bill that President Joe Biden rejected as too small. That measure included $1,000 payments that would cut off at $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Senators also passed an amendment offered by U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., to ban unauthorized immigrants from getting stimulus checks by a vote of 58-42. Both of New Jersey’s U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, voted no.

One proposal that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said would not fly would be to substantially reduce the cost of the bill.

“If there are good-faith amendments from the other side, we look forward to them,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “What we cannot do, however, is think small in the face of big problems. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. We cannot do too little. We cannot lock our country into a long and slow recovery.”

Once the Senate completes its work, the House would vote on the amended resolution, and has made plans to do so later Friday. That will allow lawmakers in both houses to begin drafting and debating the $1.9 trillion bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that the price tag was right.

“We want to save lives and save livelihoods; it’s going to cost some money to do so,” she said. “It is a reasonable plan. It meets the needs. It is not excessive. It is coronavirus‑centric, it is in a timely fashion, and that’s where we have to go.”

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who used the same parliamentary procedure in 2017 to pass a tax law that the Congressional Budget Office said would increase the deficit by the same $1.9 billion, objected to the size of the stimulus bill.

“There is no doubt that some families are still struggling,” McConnell said Thursday on the Senate floor. “This isn’t finished. But experts agree the remaining damage to our economy does not require another multi trillion-dollar, non-targeted Band-Aid.”

However, S&P Global reported that a $1.9 trillion stimulus “would have the strongest impact on the economy this year,” and the Brookings Institution, a Washington research organization, said a package that high would restore the economy to pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter of the year.

SOURCE By: Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com