stimulus-checks-how-when-you-could-possibly-receive-8000-payments-2022

Stimulus Checks: How, When You Could Possibly Receive $8,000 Payments in 2022

The U.S. government is spending on stimulus for low- to middle-income parents.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) is handing out stimulus checks of up to $8,000 to parents with an adjusted gross income of less than $125,000, and with two or more children under the age of 13. Those in that category are set to get an extra $2,000 above what they were allowed to claim in tax credits before the American Rescue Plan passed.

From 2020 on earlier, the biggest tax credit that taxpayers could claim for two or more children was $6,000. In 2021, the ARP raised that to $8,000 for one child and $16,000 for more than one kid. So now some people will be getting bigger checks from the government.

Moreover, the percentage of qualifying expenses parents can claim has gone up from 35 percent to 50 percent.

Here’s How You Can Get Any Missed Stimulus Payments

Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent out the sixth and final monthly payment of child tax credits to roughly 36 million households.

Some households have been getting regular checks from the government since July. But others have yet to receive all the money the government promised them, per KTLA. If you’re among the latter, you could still get your remaining child tax credit money next year as a lump sum after you file your 2021 federal tax return.

To make sure you do, claim any child tax credit payments you never received on your 2021 federal tax return when you file next year. According to the IRS, you should do this even if you don’t otherwise need to file a tax return. The 2021 federal tax return is your last chance to get the rest of the money.

Thus far, the government has distributed more than 200 million payments worth approximately $93 billion total. That’s thanks to the ARP, which passed in March.  

The IRS plans to mail out a letter next month for taxpayers’ benefit. It will include information designed to help taxpayers sort out their tax relief situation.

Local Officials Are Wrestling with How to Prioritize ARP Funds

Meanwhile, stimulus funds have also gone out to state and local governments. And across the country, local government officials are still figuring out how to prioritize the relief funds available to them as a result of the ARP.

In Nashville, for example, the Metro Council easily approved using $40.2 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to build more affordable housing. But officials butted heads over the use of $9 million in ARP funds for additional police vehicles, the Tennessean reports.

“We have been in the habit lately of using these funds to fund inanimate objects and things and not fully funding the human toll that this virus has taken on us,” Councilmember Ginny Welsch said at a recent meeting. She was explaining why she voted against the police vehicles.

But Councilmember Jennifer Gamble replied that they had already postponed the police fleet request. That wasn’t addressed when it was time to distribute the first round of CARES Act funding. The Council has already tended to community needs – including food, rent and mortgage relief, and small business funds – and it’s time to address public safety concerns, she argued.

“This time, we have more funding and more time to address all of the needs of the city,” Gamble said, according to the Tennessean.

However local governments disburse the federal government relief funds available to them, they’d better make the money go a long way, because next year is an election year, and political analysts say it’s only going to get harder to push further legislation through Congress.