The US House of Representatives has passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, aka a third stimulus bill. It now heads to the US Senate. As it stands, here is what you could expect from the bill in a third stimulus payment – will it be $1,400 for you, or less?
Will You Get the Full $1,400 Stimulus Payments or Less?
This could still change up a bit as the Senate gets the House version as a critical 50th vote to pass it wants the threshold for payments to be a bit narrower or more targeted to those who may really need it. But, in its current form (which may still be the final version), here is a calculator that shows you what you can expect.
This calculator was made by Jasmine Mah, the same creator who made the previous calculators that many found helpful here on the site.
This formula is very similar to the previous one which an exception – it phases out completely at the top level for both individuals and couples filing jointly. That means if you are a single person, you can expect to not get anything at all if your most recent tax year shows an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or more. For a couple filing jointly, you can expect it to be completely gone at $200,000. How this is different from before is that the primary individuals would be cut but they would still get some money for the dependents.
Lose A Lot of Income in 2020? File Quickly!
There is one big thing to consider. If you took a major hit in your earnings for 2020, then you will definitely want to get your 2020 tax return in ASAP and electronically. This is because the IRS will use the most recent return it has, 2019 or 2020, to assess the amount of stimulus payment you will receive. If you made a good amount of money in 2019 but saw that dropped significantly in 2020, you would get more from this stimulus if it is based on 2019.
Another thing of note is that this version of the stimulus bill covers adult dependents over the age of 17 as well. This is in contrast to the previous stimulus bills where college-aged dependents did not get any money at all, neither did the parent who claimed them.
When Will You Get this Stimulus Money?
The current unemployment benefits from the last stimulus bill expire in the middle of March so lawmakers really want to make sure that the extension of those benefits (included in the American Rescue Plan) continue on from that point so that people do not lose any money if they are still unemployed.
This means that if the Senate does not want too many modifications, you could see stimulus money being sent out around the 14th of March and on. Of course, if you have direct deposit information on file with the IRS, you will get your money quicker than if they need to send by mail.
