First Round Of Cares Act Stimulus Checks: What Expats Should Know
Q. What did the CARES Act 2020 Coronavirus stimulus check mean for U.S. expats?
A. The CARES Act stimulus check expats got in 2020 was technically a 2020 tax credit in advance.
It was part of the CARES Act Coronavirus stimulus package, which was designed to help get the economy back on its feet while we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. In it are a variety of benefits for both individuals and corporations to ease the financial burden of the shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders. For the average American, the main benefits are cash payments and a variety of other debt relief options. The amount each taxpayer got depends on a variety of factors.
Q. Did I qualify for a CARES Act stimulus check if I live overseas?
A. Yes, expats qualified for the CARES Act stimulus checks. You qualified if you fell within the income threshold, had a social security number, and filed taxes even if you lived overseas. If you didnt get it, you can still apply for it retroactively as a tax credit on your 2020 tax return.
Q. What is the Recovery Rebate Credit?
A. If you didnt get the full amount you were owed, you may be able to apply for the Recovery Rebate Credit. Any eligible individual who did not receive the full amount of the recovery rebate as an advance payment, also known as an Economic Impact Payment, can claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on a 2020 Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR.
Q. How much was the CARES Act stimulus check for?
Q. Did I have to pay back the amount I got?
A. No
The Irs Classifies Me As An Older Adult What Should I Know
Many older adults, including retirees over age 65, received a first stimulus check under the CARES Act and were eligible for the second one — and are for the third as well. For older adults and retired people, factors like your tax filings, your AGI, your pension and if you’re part of the SSI or SSDI program will affect whether you receive a stimulus payment.
The third stimulus check makes older adult dependents eligible to receive more money on behalf of the household. Here’s how to determine if you qualify for your own stimulus check or count as a dependent.
How much stimulus money you could get depends on who you are.
Eligibility: Will I Get $1400 From The Third Stimulus Check
The current package includes a third round of stimulus checks in the amount of $1,400 for individuals and $2,800 for married couples.
Currently, single individuals with an adjusted gross income of up to $75,000 will be eligible for the full $1,400. Married couples with an AGI of up to $150,000 will be eligible for the full $2,800.
Single individuals making up to $80,000 and couples making up to $160,000 will still receive a payment, but it will not be the full $1,400 per person. If your AGI is over $80,000 as an individual or $160,000 as a couple, you will not receive the third stimulus check at all.
For those filing as head of household, the payment will begin to phase out at $112,500 and will be cut off for those earning more than $120,000.
Eligibility will be based on your 2020 tax return, if youve already filed. If you havent filed your 2020 taxes, itll be based on your 2019 tax return.
Also Check: North Carolina Stimulus Check 2022
Will There Be A Fourth Stimulus Check
Probably not. There has been speculation that Congress could discuss another round of stimulus checks during the pandemic, according to Yahoo Finance. But its unlikely because so much of the stimulus check cash has remained unspent.
U.S. House Republican Whip Steve Scalise said theres a lot of stimulus money still unclaimed, meaning that some checks have gone unspent by people who received them.
- Theres over a trillion dollars of money unspent from previous relief bills … still sitting in a bank account, he said on ABCs This Week.
Indeed, data from the Internal Revenue Service obtained by The Boston Herald found that 1,245,339 stimulus checks have not been spent because they havent been claimed yet.
- The IRS told The Boston Herald the data show the number of people who either refused to accept, paid back or not cashed the stimulus checks they received from the IRS as a result of the CARES Act that was signed into law on March 27, 2020.
Will People Receive A Paper Check Or A Debit Card
The IRS encourages people to check Get My Payment for additional information the tool on IRS.gov will be updated on a regular basis starting Monday, March 15. People who don’t receive a direct deposit should watch their mail for either a paper check or a debit card. To speed delivery of the payments to reach as many people as soon as possible, some payments will be sent in the mail as a debit card. The form of payment for the third stimulus payment may differ from the first two.
People should watch their mail carefully. The Economic Impact Payment Card, or EIP Card, will come in a white envelope prominently displaying the U.S. Department of the Treasury seal. It has the Visa name on the front of the Card and the issuing bank, MetaBank®, N.A. on the back of the card. Information included with the card will explain that this is an Economic Impact Payment. More information about these cards is available at EIPcard.com.
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Are My Dependents Eligible With This Check
As a rule, dependents are not eligible for their own checks, but they do contribute to the total your household can receive. In many cases, it can multiple your family’s total.
In the third stimulus check, dependents of every age count toward $1,400. If you’re a parent of a baby born in 2020, you could be entitled to $1,100 if you never received the first two payments for your new dependent last year. You can also get $1,400 for a baby born in 2021. Note that if your household exceeds the strict income limits, you won’t receive any stimulus check money, even if you have dependents.
With the second stimulus check approved in December, each child dependent — age 16 and younger — added $600 each to the household payment. There was no cap on how many children you could claim a payment. That was an increase in the amount per child from the $500 that was part of the first check approved last March as part of the CARES Act, even as the per-adult maximum decreased from $1,200 per adult to $600 in the December stimulus plan.
The final qualifications for a third stimulus check have been settled.
Who Will Get A Third Stimulus Check
Those with an adjusted gross income up to $75,000 are still eligible for a full payment. But under the new law, payments phase out for individuals making more than $80,000 and couples making more than $160,000 payments previously phased out for individuals at $100,000 and couples at $200,000.
This could mean that 11.8 million fewer adults and 4.6 million fewer children will be eligible for stimulus checks, according to the Taxation and Economic Policy.
Also Check: I Did Not Receive Third Stimulus Check
Stimulus And Child Tax Credit Payments: Today Is The Final Day To Claim Your Money
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to claim your child tax credit money or third stimulus check money today.
Katie Teague
Writer
Katie is a writer covering all things how-to at CNET, with a focus on Social Security and notable events. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing in golf scrambles, practicing yoga and spending time on the lake.
Today is the last day to claim your missing stimulus and child tax credit money if you haven’t yet. The IRS reported in October that 9 million eligible families still hadn’t claimed their payments. If you’re one of the millions who hasn’t received your money, you’ll need to take action before time runs out tonight.
For many who are still waiting on payments, it’s because they never filed a tax return, either because they’re not required to file or because they needed more time. The IRS used tax returns to determine eligibility for both of these payments.
Keep reading to find out the latest you can submit your simplified tax return tonight to receive any stimulus payments or child tax credit money owed to you. For more, see if your state is mailing out stimulus checks this month.
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Read Also: When Will Next Stimulus Check Come
How Do Renters Apply For Housing Relief Under The American Rescue Plan
This aid is being distributed at the state and city levels, with eligible renters able to apply in their area. In an effort to reach the most at-need Americans, one or more individuals in the renter’s household must fall into one of the following categories:
- Qualify for unemployment
- Experienced a reduction in household income
- Incurred significant costs or experienced a financial hardship due to the Covid-19 pandemic
- Demonstrate a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability
- Have household income at or below 80 percent of the area median
Priority will be given to low-income households and renters who have been laid off due to the pandemic.
All Third Economic Impact Payments Issued Parents Of Children Born In 2021 Guardians And Other Eligible People Who Did Not Receive All Of Their Third
IR-2022-19, January 26, 2022
WASHINGTON The Internal Revenue Service announced today that all third-round Economic Impact Payments have been issued and reminds people how to claim any remaining stimulus payment they’re entitled to on their 2021 income tax return as part of the 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit.
Parents of a child born in 2021 or parents and guardians who added a new qualifying child to their family in 2021 did not receive a third-round Economic Impact Payment for that child and may be eligible to receive up to $1,400 for the child by claiming the Recovery Rebate Credit.
While some payments of the Economic Impact Payments from 2021 may still be in the mail, including, 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. The IRS is no longer issuing payments as required by law. Through December 31, the IRS issued more than 175 million third-round payments totaling over $400 billion to individuals and families across the country while simultaneously managing an extended filing season in 2021.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, signed into law on March 11, 2021, authorized a third round of Economic Impact Payments and required them to be issued by December 31, 2021. The IRS began issuing these payments on March 12, 2021 and continued through the end of the year.
Also Check: 3rd Stimulus Check 2021 Amount
How Are Americans Using Stimulus Checks
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says that households are spending a smaller percentage of their stimulus checks and saving more. The that households set aside just under 25% of their third-round payments for consumption. This share fell from just over 29% of first-round payments reported in June 2020 and almost 26% of second-round payments reported in January 2021.
The table below is based on all three SCE surveys and breaks down the average percentage of stimulus payments spent, saved and used to pay off debt:
| New York Fed SCE Breakdown of Stimulus Check Spending | |
| Payment Round | |
| 37.4% | 33.7% |
The New York Fed also says that households expect to spend an average 13% of the third stimulus check on essential items and an average 8% on non-essential items.
For a comparison, preliminary data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau from shows that the majority of stimulus recipients are almost three times more likely to use checks to pay down debt than add to their savings.
An earlier showed that the majority of recipients who got the first stimulus check spent their payment on household expenses. Adults with incomes between $75,000 and $99,999 told the Census that they would most likely pay off debt or add to their savings. While adults making less than $25,000 said they would use their stimulus to pay for expenses.
For those households that spent their first stimulus checks, the study says:
You Didnt File A 2019 Or 2020 Tax Return
Generally, the IRS will look at your 2019 or 2020 tax return to see if youre eligible for a third stimulus check and, if so, to determine the amount of your check. If you didnt file a 2019 or 2020 return , then the IRS is stuck. It doesnt have the information it needs to send you a payment readily available.
For some people, the IRS got the necessary information from another federal agency that is paying you benefits . After it got the information, the IRS was able to start sending payments to those beneficiaries but waiting to get the data caused a delay. For example, the IRS just recently started sending payments to millions of federal beneficiaries.
If the IRS isnt able to get the information needed to process your payment , then youll have to claim the amount youre entitled to as a Recovery Rebate credit on your 2021 tax return. But theres an easy way to avoid this simply file a 2020 tax return, even if you dont have to.
Theres still plenty of time to file a 2020 return. The IRS pushed back this years return filing deadline from April 15 to May 17, 2021, so you have an additional month to get your 2020 return to the IRS. The tax agency has until the end of the year to send out third-round stimulus payments, so you can still get a check if you havent filed yet it will just take longer for you to get it.
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Requirements To Receive The Third Stimulus Check
In general, low- and middle-income US citizens are eligible. As established by the IRS, this help is intended for people who earn less than $75,000 of adjusted gross income, heads of households who earn less than $112,500 and married couples who file jointly who earn less than $150,000 . The amount is $1,400 per person plus $1,400 per dependent.
If you will be filing your return with the IRS, we recommend having your IRS 144-C notice, IRS letter 6475 handy, or logging into your IRS account.
Q How Much Was The Second Stimulus Check For
A. Your second stimulus check depended on your 2019 income. The full amount was $600 per individual, $1,200 per couple, and $600 per qualifying child under the age of 17. For expats to qualify for the full second stimulus check, you must have had $75,000 or less in income if you filed as single, $112,500 or less if you filed as head of household, or $150,000 or less if you filed jointly with your spouse or as a qualifying widow. Youd also then qualify for a $600 payment per qualifying child.
For those above this income level, your stimulus check amount would lower $5 for each $100 your AGI exceeded the above thresholds.
Q. Did I have to pay back the amount I get?
A. No.
Q. Will this affect my 2020 tax return?
A. It could only help your 2020 return. If you are eligible for more stimulus than you were awarded, you may be able to claim it as a credit on your return that either decreases your tax liability or increases your refund. If youre eligible for less or received the full amount, you dont have to pay it back and it wont affect your return.
Q. Will I owe tax on this second stimulus check in 2021 or have to pay it back?
A. No, this is considered a tax credit, not income, so you will not need to pay taxes on it in 2021 or pay it back.
Q. Im retired overseas and dont file a tax return did I qualify for the second stimulus check?
Q. What if I didnt have an SSN but filed a U.S. return. Did I get to take advantage of the second stimulus check?
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Not Everyone Who Lives In A Us Territory Is Ensured A Check
With the first two stimulus checks, people who live in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands may have been eligible to receive payments. Whether these groups qualified for a check has in the past been determined by the tax authorities in each territory. These agencies were also directed to make the payments. It’s the same situation for the third stimulus checks.
If you never received a payment for one or both of the previous stimulus checks, you’ll need to contact your local tax authority to inquire.
Nonfilers will need to take an extra step to get their stimulus money.
