Early Wednesday lawmakers struck a $2 trillion stimulus bill. Amid the coronavirus crisis, it includes sending checks directly to individuals. Nevertheless, it will most likely take until at least May before that money will go out.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and United States President Donald Trump are still pushing to get the direct payments issued by April 6. That is what the White House official told CNN. Earlier during negotiations, Mnuchin floated the date as a deadline.
On Wednesday, Mnuchin said that the administration expects to begin to issue direct payments to taxpayers within three weeks of a stimulus package being signed into law.
Mnuchin said that their expectations are within three weeks; they will have direct payments out where they have depository information. They are looking to get a lot more information, and they have procedures to do that.
By the end of the week, Mnuchin adds, the administration wants all blanks to originate loans on a same-day basis.
The government took longer than a month, distributing the checks under the previous programs in 2001 and 2008.
Howard Gleckman is a senior fellow at the Center of the Tax Policy. He is very doubtful that people will get payments by April 6 because it is two weeks away from now. Gleckman said that it is more real to expecting them in a month or two.
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The Bill
On Wednesday, the Republican Senate aide told reporters that they had heard some estimates. Estimates are that the administration will be able to get started on about half of the rebates within a few weeks. It is because individuals had electronically filed their returns. The aide added that paper checks would take a little bit longer. It will be because the Bureau of Fiscal Service can only proceed and push out so many papers to check a week.
The aide said that it is a very significant number. Nevertheless, he thinks they were estimating four or five weeks to get the balance out.
Under the draft bill, parents will see $500 for each child under age 17. Moreover, married couples will get $2400, and single Americans will receive $1,200.
Nevertheless, the payments will phase out individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000. Those who make more than $99,000 will not qualify at all. For couples, the thresholds are doubled.
According to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, about 90% of Americans will be eligible for receiving partial or full payments. For so-called recovery debates, lawmakers set aside $250 billion.
Qualifying income will be based on 2019 federal tax returns if already filed. Otherwise, it will be based on 2018 returns. Earlier this month, Mnuchin delayed the filing deadline until July 15.
Gleckman said that there are provisions in the bill which includes those who do not earn enough to file returns, but some people might be missed.
Under the current legislation lowers middle-income Americans will receive just over two-thirds of the benefits. Nevertheless, the earlier version of the bill could not give any assistance to lower-income households.
Let’s see when the bill will start to work.