WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Stimulus checks of $600 could be hitting Americans’ bank accounts as early as Tuesday night, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Mnuchin said the direct deposits will begin Tuesday night and continue over the next week, and paper checks will begin to be mailed starting Wednesday. Later in the week, people will be able to check the status of the checks on the IRS website.
“Treasury and the IRS are working with unprecedented speed to issue a second round of Economic Impact Payments to eligible Americans and their families,” said Mnuchin. “These payments are an integral part of our commitment to providing vital additional economic relief to the American people during this unprecedented time.”
The second round of payments will be distributed automatically, with no action required for eligible individuals.
“Generally, if you have adjusted gross income for 2019 up to $75,000 for individuals and up to $150,000 for married couples filing joint returns and surviving spouses, you will receive the full amount of the second payment. For filers with income above those amounts, the payment amount is reduced,” the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a press release Tuesday evening.
After a delay, President Donald Trump signed the bill — which included $600 per adult and per dependent child — into law Sunday evening.
“As President, I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child,” the president said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought a standalone bill to the House floor Monday to increase check sizes.
“Now, the President must immediately call on Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to join him and Democrats in support of our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000, which will be brought to the Floor tomorrow,” Pelosi said.
The House approved the bill Monday afternoon and sent the measure to the Senate. The Senate denied the bill, but McConnell introduced a new bill Tuesday afternoon.
If additional legislation is enacted to increase the amount of the second round of checks, “Economic Impact Payments that have been issued will be topped up as quickly as possible,” the Treasury release noted.
How long will it take for you to get the money? Let’s break it down:
The Internal Revenue Service was expected to begin issuing the direct deposit of Economic Impact Payments on Tuesday night, with paper checks set to begin being mailed Wednesday, Dec. 30.
Here’s how long it took last time to get checks:
- March 25 — CARES Act passes Senate
- March 27 — CARES Act passes House
- March 27 — President signs CARES Act
- April 10-11 — IRS direct deposits started arriving
- April 18 — Paper checks mailing began
The bulk of the payments arrived by the end of May, according to a September Government Account Office report.
In a document to financial institutions, the IRS said the initial batch of 81 million electronic payments were deposited by April 15. Paper checks began being printed on April 18. The Treasury Department had the ability to print 5 to 7 million checks.
A majority of people getting stimulus “checks,” actually didn’t get paper checks, but rather the funds were electronically deposited, according to data analyzed by NewsNation.
Another factor likely to speed up the timeline: the IRS system is up-and-running already and those who weren’t set up to automatically get payments likely already put in their bank information or mailing address in the IRS database.
The GAO also found the government had sent an estimated $1.2 billion to deceased people. It’s unclear if that finding will change the way the distribution would happen.
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