WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — A Congress riven along party lines approved the landmark $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Democrats claimed a major triumph on legislation marshaling the government’s spending might against twin pandemic and economic crises that have upended a nation.
But who will get them and how much money will they ultimately receive?
The American Rescue Plan calculator created by Jasmine Mah, a web developer for Omni Calculator, will figure out what your Economic Impact Payment will look like based on your tax filing status, number of dependents, adjusted gross income and whether or not you filed taxes in 2019 or 2020.
U.S. resident with a social security number can qualify for a stimulus check, however certain people who didn’t file taxes recently may still receive a payment.
Mah updates the tool as new developments arise in Washington D.C., but says some users experiencing an exceptional situation to which the calculator is not applicable can find guidance in the tool’s FAQs or in the bill itself under 2021 Recovery Rebates to Individuals.
Omni Calculator is a startup that has created thousands of free calculators for people to apply to life situations.
The House gave final congressional approval to the sweeping package by a near party line 220-211 vote precisely seven weeks after Biden entered the White House and four days after the Senate passed the bill. Republicans in both chambers opposed the legislation unanimously, characterizing it as bloated, crammed with liberal policies and heedless of signs the crises are easing.
If you need a refresher, anyone who made $75,000 or less will get the full amount — and couples earning $150,000 or less will get $2,800 in relief payments. As your income level increases above those thresholds, the amount you will receive decreases. The current plan calls for the phase-out of direct payments for single people to be $100,000 and $200,000 for couples.
“Head of household” recipients, such as a single parent, will have a higher income cutoff than the single category. Those people are still eligible for $1,400 while earning up to $112,500 with $1,400 per dependent. For those Americans, stimulus checks will completely phase out at incomes of $150,000 or more.
In addition to the $1,400 payments, the bill would extend emergency unemployment benefits through August and increase tax credits for children and federal subsidies for health insurance.
It also provides billions for schools and colleges, state and local governments, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, renters, food producers and struggling industries like airlines, restaurants, bars and concert venues.
Now the big question is: How quickly will the measure move through the Senate and could we see those direct payments this month?
“We have no time to waste,” Biden said on Saturday. “We act now — decisively, quickly and boldly — we can finally get ahead of this virus.”
The most painful was eliminating the House-approved federal minimum-wage increase to $15 hourly by 2025. Moderates also succeeded in trimming the emergency jobless benefits, which in an earlier version were $400 weekly, and phasing out the $1,400 stimulus checks completely for earners at lower levels than originally proposed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.