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Are Second Stimulus Checks Coming? – Latest Updates

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Update June 15: The Senate has not voted on the HEROES Act, and both the Senate and White House are instead writing up their own proposals. More details below.

Two more proposals are taking shape, one from the Senate Republicans, and one from White House Advisers.

Senate Proposal: Mitch McConnell is leading the charge on a phase 4 stimulus package, and says “it would be the last one.” He doesn’t specify whether direct payments would be involved, but it’s high unlikely. They also don’t want to exceed “$1 Trillion total” for this package. Details are very limited on what it would include, but most likely money toward getting people back to work.

White House: Trump and his advisers are working on their own proposal, and it is mainly focused on getting America back to work, with a …”focus on manufacturing jobs…” Peter Navarro is leading the charge on this, and stated they are looking at a $2 Trillion proposal.

House: On May 12th, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed the new Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, known as the “HEROES Act“. This bill is over 1,800 pages long, and for the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on the details of second round of stimulus checks and details on who gets them, who doesn’t and if its likely to pass.

Best Savings Account For Your Stimulus Check?

Burning Money

$1,200 Stimulus Checks Per Person

The HEROES Act is following a similar pattern to the original CARES Act that sent out the first round of stimulus checks.

The current proposal gives specific amounts per qualifying taxpayer. Here’s a quick summary:

  • $1,200 check sent to individual taxpayers who meet the income qualifications
  • $2,400 check sent to married-filing-joint couples who meet the income qualifications
  • $1,200 additional for each qualifying dependent, up to 3 total (this differs from the original stimulus checks)

The largest payment would be to a family of 5, married filing joint with 3 dependents. This would be a $6,000 stimulus check.

The phaseouts are the same as last time. And are also based on your 2018 or 2019 tax return info, same as last time.

Beginning Phaseout:

  • $75,000 for Single
  • $112,500 for Head of Household
  • $150,000 for Married Filing Joint

End phaseout:

  • $99,000 for Single
  • $136,500 for Head of Household
  • $198,000 for Married Filing Joint

If you earn over the income phaseout amount, you will receive $5 less per $100 AGI over. This includes the money for each dependent, meaning after you lose your $1,200 check, earning $100 more will also reduce your $1,200 per child check by $5.

Example; If your adjusted gross income for 2019 was $80,000, you are $5,000 over the income phaseout. That means your check would be reduced by $250. You would receive a $950 stimulus check.

Example 2; If Married Filing Joint with 2 kids and your adjusted gross income for 2019 was $218,000, you are $20,000 over the income phaseout. That means you would NOT receive the $2,400 (phased out at $198k), and you would also lose the $1,000 of the $2,400 for your 2 kids. So your stimulus check would be $1,400.

EXAMPLE TOTAL CHECK

We are a family of 5, married-filing-joint and meet the income qualifications for a full check. We also have 3 qualifying dependents.

We would expect a $6,000 check from this stimulus (which is the maximum allowed).

$2,400 + $1,200 per child (3) = $6,000

Is This A Monthly Payment?

No.

Though there have been MANY proposals lately asking for monthly stimulus payments, this bill is proposing another one-time payment, similar to the first stimulus checks.

I suspect this is due to cost, among other things, and since the rest of the bill is so expensive, monthly payments would possibly double the price of this bill, making it dismissed immediately.

“Corrections” To The Original CARES Act

This bill also adds a few “corrections” to the original stimulus bill, the CARES Act.

  • Married Filing Joint couples were disqualified from receiving a Stimulus Payment in the CARES Act even if just one of them did NOT have a Taxpayer Identification Number (usually a SSN).
    • This bill retroactively fixes that issue, and instead of both of them receiving $0, only the spouse without a TIN would get $0, and the other spouse would get $1,200.
  • It changes the wording from “qualifying child” to “dependent” to help families get paid the original $500 for children 17 or older living at home, and for elderly dependents.
  • It provides more protection from banks who to NOT be able to seize the stimulus funds due to any outstanding debts or owed payments. The original CARES act did not explicitly protect individuals from the financial institution that received their payment from seizing those funds.

When Will The Senate Vote On The HEROES Act?

The trillion dollar question!

There was initial thought that they might vote on it in early June.

Too late for that now.

Now Larry Kudlow is saying possibly after July 4th celebrations!

It seems that the Senate is sitting on this bill either until their own proposal is finished, or until they see more of what the economy is doing after things re-open.

There is also a heavy focus on the unemployment rate, and with a slight decrease in unemployment recently, it seems to have slowed things down. According to Stephen Moore (White House adviser), recent jobs reports make the need for second checks almost unnecessary:

So, were are currently in “wait and see” until probably mid or late July.

For many of us, this is simply, too little, too late.

Is A Second Stimulus Check Coming?

No. Not as of right now.

Republican Senators have stated repeatedly they don’t want another LARGE direct payment, and are urging Congress to “wait and see” how the original stimulus helps the economy and individuals.

The House has proposed more checks, but Senate and White House are not saying anything about them while drafting their proposals currently.

But the fact that direct stimulus payments are in a proposed bill, it means Congress is at least considering it.

And now the Senate and White House are both working on new proposals, which may or may not have direct stimulus payments included.

Stay tuned for updates!

Jacob Wade

Jacob Wade

Jacob Wade has been a nationally-recognized personal finance expert for the past decade. He has written professionally for The Balance, The Spruce, LendingTree, Investing Answers, and other widely-followed sites. 
He’s also been a featured expert on CBS News, MSN Money, Forbes, Nasdaq, Yahoo! Finance, Go Banking Rates, and AOL Finance.

In 2018, Jacob quit his job and his family decided to sell everything (including their home) to take off on an adventure. They traveled the country in an RV for nearly 3 years, visiting over 38 states, 20+ national parks and eventually settling in the sunshine state!

1 thought on “Are Second Stimulus Checks Coming? – Latest Updates”

  1. I wish They would get it together because there are low income families like mine who are really struggling to survive now you are opening schools back up next month and expect us to Send our children now am still unemployed and have no money to even buy school supplies…That’s not mention all the bills running back up on I am backed up on rent my lights are about to get off Jobs are not hiring anyway. It feels like this is all set up for the poor to stay poor and continue to struggle by the rich get richer

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