In a little more than two months, an entirely new wave of stimulus checks will begin arriving in the mail for millions of families, marking the beginning of a massive transfer of wealth from the federal government to families with eligible children that represent one of the most comprehensive responses to the coronavirus pandemic undertaken to date.
Starting on July 15, the IRS anticipates that the first of around 39 million households will begin receiving payments that will total up to $3,600 for each qualified child over the course of a year, according to the IRS.
However, for the time being, set aside any speculation regarding whether or not a fourth stimulus check would be issued by the Biden administration in the near future. Whatever stimulus check update comes next from Uncle Sam will most likely not be as generous as this one.
It is anticipated that these payments would result in an increase in the federal tax credit, which was previously limited to $2,000 in value over the course of a calendar year.
To clarify, these are per child amounts, and what’s noteworthy about the payments is the potential base of users — we’re talking about families, so there’s a large number of people who could be eligible for this money if the program were to be implemented.
For a variety of reasons, these increased federal child tax credit payments are also significantly better than the three prior rounds of stimulus payments.
There are several reasons for this, the first being that the child tax credit payments are more than twice the amount of the largest previous stimulus check, which was $1,400.
Those checks were sent by the Trump administration in 2020 for $1,200 and $600, respectively, with President Biden’s government following up with the third set of $1,400 checks earlier this year, as you may recall.
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Other important points to be aware of regarding the new upcoming stimulus checks are as follows:
- The majority of families will not be required to take any action in order to begin receiving child tax credit payments. IRS will use the payment information that it already has on file to process the payment.
- As previously stated, the IRS estimates that these payments will be made to around 39 million households, which includes approximately 88 percent of all children in the United States.
- Overall, payouts for children under the age of six will total $3,600, while payments for children between the ages of six and seventeen will amount to $3,000 in total.
- Families with over 65 million children, according to IRS estimates, “will receive monthly CTC payments through direct deposit, paper check, or debit cards, and the IRS and Treasury are committed to maximizing the use of direct deposit to ensure fast and secure delivery,” according to a press release issued by the taxing authority.
- “While the vast majority of taxpayers will not be needed to take any action in order to receive their payments, Treasury and the IRS will continue outreach efforts with partner organizations over the coming months in order to make more families aware of their eligibility,” the statement reads.
- The final point to mention is that these child tax credit payments will be issued on the 15th of each month unless the 15th occurs on a weekend or a federally observed holiday.
- Families that qualify will receive a payment of up to $300 per month for each kid under the age of six, and a payment of up to $250 per month for each child between the ages of six and seventeen.