Second stimulus check for $600 or $2,000? Either way, payments would arrive in waves

After days of delay, President Donald Trump signed the COVID-19 relief bill Sunday evening, approving a second stimulus check for as much as $600 per individual and qualified child dependent. Now that the fee is formally regulation, we are able to dig into this central query: Would you obtain your second stimulus check in January or weeks or months later? 

The place you’d fall on the IRS’ fee schedule will assist decide if you happen to’d be one of many first in line to get a second stimulus check, or one of many final. (This is why some folks may not get a check at all.)

The IRS is predicted to schedule the second stimulus check to exit as early as subsequent week, however not everybody will obtain their fee without delay. As a substitute, funds are anticipated to comply with a sure order, with some folks winding up with an enormous benefit over others in terms of their supply window. We’ll clarify every little thing under. (And here is tips on how to estimate your complete with our $600 second stimulus check calculator.) This story has up to date with new data.

First group: Individuals with direct deposit arrange

Individuals who have their direct deposit information on file with the IRS, or who shortly present that data when and if IRS registration opens it up once more, are projected to be within the first group to obtain a stimulus test. An digital switch of funds is quicker and extra environment friendly than mailing a test, which is why this group largely acquired their first fee quicker.

Learn extra: A third stimulus check in 2021? This is why January’s new Congress could hold the key.

“The excellent news is [direct deposit] is a really, very quick means of getting cash into the financial system. Let me emphasize: Persons are going to see this cash initially of subsequent week,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Dec. 21.

For the primary stimulus test, the IRS took 19 days to construct its on-line instrument. On April 15, it despatched the primary batch of stimulus checks and, within the first week, despatched roughly $80 million payments to eligible recipients via direct deposit. Individuals had been inspired to proceed registering for direct deposit via Might 13 as a strategy to get their checks quicker than via the mail. Some did expertise holdups with the tool or with their personal situations. However on the entire, this was the speediest technique.

Listed here are methods you’ll be able to assist speed up delivery of your next check, together with what we all know now about signing up for direct deposit.

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Second stimulus checks: Everything you need to know

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Social Security beneficiaries: Here are two main scenarios

With the first stimulus payment, many people who receive Social Security disbursements who also had direct deposit information on file with the federal government received checks in the first week, though not always the first day.

The IRS had a separate informational section for people who receive SSDI and SSI. Normally, people in these groups receive their federal benefits through a Direct Express card, though people in this group received their stimulus payment through a non-Direct Express bank or a paper check.

Why paper checks could experience delivery delays

With the first batch of payments, the IRS began to mail checks about a week after it processed the money for people with direct deposit data on file. The US Treasury can process between 5 million and 7 million paper stimulus checks a week in addition to checks for other federal programs, according to a Government Accountability Office report from June. 

But there’s a catch. Language in the stimulus bill institutes a cutoff of Jan. 15 for the IRS to send out payments. So anyone who doesn’t receive theirs by that date would have to claim it in early 2021 during tax season. That gives people who sign up for direct deposit a distinct advantage.

The timing then becomes a matter of how soon you submit your taxes for 2020 and how quickly the IRS would be able to process your return. Those two scenarios are influenced by a variety of factors. For example, people who file their returns in February would likely receive their stimulus check money — in the form of a Recovery Rebate Credit — months before people who wait until the April 15 deadline or file an extension.

EIP card recipients were the last to get paid in the first stimulus round

Economic impact payment debit cards are prepaid Visa cards the IRS mailed to about 4 million people starting in mid-May, a month after the first direct deposit transfers took place. If the IRS isn’t able to get these out in the mail before Jan. 15, they would face the same issue as the paper checks.

People with more complex situations could wait the longest

For the first check, this category includes people who received a check after June, still haven’t received their full stimulus payment or who didn’t know they needed to complete an extra step. It isn’t clear what would happen if there was a problem during the process and the Recovery Rebate Credit was further delayed. It’s likely the IRS would set a different, later deadline to address clerical errors, like missing stimulus money, and other scenarios.

If you didn’t get the full amount due from the first payment, what will happen next?

It isn’t always clear how much money the IRS might owe you in the event of an error. We suggest starting with our stimulus check calculator and this introduction to how the IRS tabulates your total sum. If the numbers seem lower than they should be, you might want to investigate further.

See if any of these situations could apply to you: Are you missing $500 allotted for your child dependents, or do you pay or receive child support? Are you a tax nonfiler who may be owed a stimulus check (including older adults and people who receive SSI or SSDI)?

If you’re a US citizen abroad or live in a US territory and didn’t receive a check as expected, you may also need to read up on the rules. And a court ruling has made it possible for millions of people who are incarcerated to get a check, even after the IRS changed its interpretation to exclude this group.

Depending on which group you’re in, we’ve also mapped out some speculative dates for how soon you could potentially get your next stimulus check.