Are You Eligible For a Fifth Stimulus Check?

On April 14, the IRS confirmed that federal agencies were releasing the fifth batch of stimulus payments. Eligible recipients will start receiving their payments on April 14. This fifth batch of payments, which the IRS, Department of the Treasury, and Bureau of the Fiscal Service began processing on April 9, include 1.2 million direct deposit payments and 800,000 paper checks.

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This time around, payments are earmarked for people who filed a 2020 tax return. Another category that is eligible for this round of payments includes “plus-up” payments amounting to 700,000 payments. This means that if you have already received stimulus checks on the strength of your 2019 tax returns, but your 2020 tax returns make you eligible for a larger payment, you could be getting a stimulus check in the mail.

Federal agencies are also issuing more than 320,000 payments to Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who don’t usually file tax returns and 72,000 checks to Social Security beneficiaries who haven’t filed tax returns for two years.

Under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, individuals earning less than $75,000 per year and married joint filers making less than $150,000 will receive the $1,400 payment.

If you are eligible for a fifth stimulus payment but don’t receive a check, you can claim stimulus money as Recovery Rebate Credit on your 2021 tax returns which you will have to file next year.

With the fifth batch of payments, the total amount disbursed comes to 159 million payments which amount to a value of $376 billion.

Remember to check and monitor your mail as carefully as you can. According to the IRS, several Americans threw out their checks by mistake in the last stimulus round, believing them to be junk mail or a scam. So, make sure you don’t miss your stimulus check!

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