36 million families are getting a new stimulus payment this week
Millions of Americans — around 36 million, according to the IRS — are getting a gift from Uncle Sam later this week. It will come in the form of a long-awaited new stimulus payment, with the checks set to arrive on July 15 totaling, at a minimum, a few hundred dollars. Even better: These new stimulus payments will also be the first in a recurring series.
Americans have received three separate stimulus checks so far since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. What’s coming this week, however, is something different. It’s not technically a fourth stimulus check. Rather, this week’s stimulus payment is actually an advance payment of a federal tax credit. Albeit, one that’s broken up into six monthly checks that recipients will get through December. Read on for the full details of what’s coming, and when.
Stimulus payment coming July 15
As always, recipients will get this new payment in the form of either a paper check or an electronic bank deposit. This week’s stimulus payment, however, has a very specific target: Families with children. That makes the payments much more targeted than the three previous stimulus checks, which were meant for pretty much everyone.
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The federal child tax credit is the benefit making the new payments possible. This credit was expanded earlier this year, as part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation President Biden signed in March. And it will now give families with children under age six up to $3,600 per child.
For kids between the ages of six and 17, the amount is $3,000 for each child.
The checks
As for the checks themselves, here’s how the forthcoming stimulus payments will be structured.
Half of those amounts we mentioned above are coming to the recipient families next year as a tax credit. Because we’re still in the midst of a pandemic that pummeled the economy, though, the intent was to deliver the other half of that tax credit to families now. So, the first half of that tax credit is what’s being spread over six new stimulus payments.
Generally, these new monthly checks will be for either $250 or $300, per eligible child. So, for example, let’s say a two-parent household has one 5-year-old daughter.
The new child tax credit will give them $1,800 (half of the full $3,600 benefit) next year, after they’ve filed their federal taxes. They’ll get the other half in the form of six new stimulus payments, for $300 each (6 x $300 = $1,800).
The payment dates will be the 15th of every month, starting this month and ending with December 15. The one exception here is August. The 15th of next month falls on a Sunday. So Friday, August 13, will be the date that the IRS sends out that month’s stimulus payment.
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