The IRS just shared an important stimulus check update, for anyone still waiting on their $1,400 stimulus payment that was made possible by the $1.9 trillion legislative package known as the so-called “American Rescue Plan,” which President Biden signed into law on March 11.
In short, more than 1.8 million additional direct payments — including both paper checks as well as electronic deposits sent straight to bank accounts — were just sent out, bringing the total amount of stimulus payments disbursed since early March to almost 167 million checks. In aggregate, those checks total about $391 billion, and in terms of the 1.8 million checks that were just sent out themselves, those have a collective value of more than $3.5 billion. Needless to say, this bit of good news also comes against the backdrop of coronavirus case counts plummeting in the US — they’re down more than 50% this month, amid an average of around 1.7 million vaccinations each day in the US.
Even so, the work of pushing out the staggeringly massive sum of money that the federal government approved in March continues. The IRS is stressing that the $1,400 stimulus checks are going to keep being sent out on a weekly basis as the tax agency works to finish that effort related to the American Rescue Plan. Meanwhile, here are some additional fast facts about the more than 1.8 million new payments that were just sent out:
- According to the IRS, more than 900,000 payments, with a value of approximately $1.9 billion, went to eligible individuals for whom the IRS previously did not have information to issue stimulus checks — though these individuals did recently file a tax return.
- This new batch of payments also includes additional ongoing supplemental payments for people who earlier this year received payments based on their 2019 tax returns but are eligible for a new or larger payment based on their recently processed 2020 tax returns. In the last two weeks, there were more than 900,000 of these “plus-up” payments, with a value of more than $1.6 billion. In all, the IRS has also made nearly 7 million of these supplemental payments this year. Read more about what these so-called plus-up payments are here.
- Overall, the IRS also says the last two weeks of payments contain more than 900,000 direct deposit payments with a total value of more than $1.6 billion, with the remainder as paper check payments.
If you’re wondering whether or not a new stimulus check is on its way to you right now, you can find out using the Get My Payment tool on the IRS website.
Additionally, also don’t forget that a whole new, separate round of stimulus checks is coming in a little more than a month from now. They’re the expanded federal child tax credit payments of up to $3,600 coming to the first of some 39 million households starting in July for each eligible child. Those 39 million households cover, by the IRS’s calculation, about 88% of children in the US, and in aggregate, the payments will total up to $3,600 for children under the age of 6 and $3,000 for children between ages 6 and 17.
Related coverage:
