Nearly 2 million more stimulus payments from the passage of the American Rescue Plan COVID relief bill in March went out in the past two weeks. They include almost 1 million "plus-up" payments, the IRS said Wednesday.
Approximately 167 million stimulus payments worth more than $391 billion have now been distributed, according to the IRS, with more expected to go out in the coming weeks now that the tax filing deadline of May 17 has come and gone.
Americans who made up to $75,000 in 2020 will get the maximum $1,400 check under the American Rescue Plan. Couples who file taxes jointly and made up to $150,000 will get $2,800. The amount received decreases to zero for individuals who made up to $80,000 and couples who earned $160,000. There's a $1,400 kicker for each dependent in the household.
The 1.8 million payments announced Wednesday mark the most recent batches of checks to go out since the bill was signed by President Joe Biden on March 11. The IRS said these batches included more than 900,000 payments for those people whom the agency did not previously have information on in order to deliver the money.
There are also more than 900,000 "plus-up" payments worth more than $1.6 billion in these recent batches, the IRS said.
Can I get more money from a plus up payment?
These recipients may not initially have been eligible to receive the stimulus checks based on their 2019 tax returns because they made too much income. But they are eligible now because they lost income in 2020. Now that they filed their 2020 returns to report this income loss, or if they added a dependent, they are now eligible.
About 900,000 payments were deposited directly into bank accounts. The rest went out by mail as paper checks.
The IRS reminds those who have yet to receive a stimulus payment, but don't normally file their taxes, that they need to submit a 2020 tax return to get their check and any tax credits they may be eligible for.