Following a contentious battle in Congress, the American Rescue Plan was finally signed into law by President Biden on Thursday, March 11th. Shortly afterward, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the third round of Economic Impact Payments should start going out as early as the coming weekend, and by March 12th, some eligible Americans had already begun to see direct deposits from the IRS in their bank accounts.
As with previous rounds, the $1,400 stimulus checks will be sent out in waves, and those who have already provided their information to the Internal Revenue Service can expect to see the money more quickly than those who have not. Either way, if you want to check on the status of your payment, you will once again need to visit the IRS website’s Get My Payment tool, which is now back online after temporarily being taken down last week.
If you want to see exactly when your Economic Impact Payment will arrive, visit the website and click on the blue Get My Payment button. You’ll then be asked to enter your Social Security Number (SSN) or Tax ID Number (ITIN), date of birth, street address, and ZIP or postal code. Click Continue, and you should arrive at a Payment Status page. This is where you will see the date that the IRS plans to deliver your payment.
If your payment has not been processed yet, there are a number of other messages you might see. There’s a chance that you are eligible for a payment, but it has yet to be processed and thus no date can be provided. It is also possible that you will see that the payment status is not available, which either means that it hasn’t been processed or that you aren’t eligible for the payment at all. Finally, if the page tells you it needs more information from you in order to deliver your payment, you’ll be able to use the Get My Payment tool to give the IRS your bank details.
Speaking of eligibility, not everyone who was expecting a third stimulus check will receive one. Individuals who earn $75,000 or less will receive the full $1,400, but the payments will now phase out entirely for anyone earning $80,000 or more. Similarly, married couples earning $150,000 or less will get the full amount, but those that earn $160,000 or more will not be eligible for the payments. This is one of the changes the Senate made to the bill.
In addition to providing millions of Americans with stimulus payments, the $1.9 trillion bill also extends unemployment benefits of $300 a week through September 6th, expands the Child Tax Credit, increases funding for Covid vaccines, and sends hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments.
