Those payments — $1,200 for individuals making less than $75,000 a year and $2,400 for married couples making less than $150,000 a year plus an extra $500 for each dependent child — are part of the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Congress passed late last month.
The payments taper off for those higher up on the income scale, phasing out entirely for single people making more than $99,000 a year and couples making more than $198,000 a year.
Those who filed 2018 and 2019 income taxes with the Internal Revenue Service should see direct deposit or checks starting today, depending on how they opted to receive their tax returns last year. Social Security recipients will see the stimulus money come the same way they receive those benefits, according to the federal government.
If you filed taxes over the last two years, you can check the status of your stimulus payment at this IRS website.
If you didn’t make enough money to file income taxes and/or don’t receive Social Security benefits, you can go to this IRS page to enter in your payment information.
The payments are aimed at softening the economic blow that has come from massive business closures, layoffs and furloughs due to restrictive social distancing practices aimed at slowing the spread of the pandemic coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
More help from the CARES Act is coming for those who are eligible for those benefits. The federal government will add an additional $600 a week in unemployment benefits for those receiving that aid from the state starting next week in an effort to shore up the finances of those who are out of work. Those payments will be retroactive to March 29 and will extend until at least July 31.
This story was originally published at our sister paper City Beat.
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This article appears in Stay Home, Make Art.