How Stimulus Checks Can Give You A $14,000 Windfall This Year

How Stimulus Checks Can Give You A $14,000 Windfall This Year

Sigrid Forberg  Thu, March 4, 2021

Congress is nearing the finish line as lawmakers race to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package by mid-March.  Included in the package is the third round of stimulus checks — for up to $1,400 this time — plus an extension of emergency federal unemployment benefits, an expanded child tax credit and more.  So if you need more help to pay down debt or cover household expenses, you may start to receive it in a few weeks. 

Taken together, government relief this year could provide a family of four with a pile of money totaling at least $14,000, according to a new analysis. Here’s how your household could get a windfall like that in 2021.

How does the math work on $14,000?

Consider the Smiths, a hypothetical family of four with two adults and two children, 7 and 10. Provided they met the income criteria for stimulus checks, the Smiths would have received $2,400 in January from the second round of payments: $600 for each adult and each of the kids.

If Congress passes the current aid bill and Biden signs it, the family would get another $1,400 per person, for a total of $5,600. Add that to the $2,400 from earlier in the year, and you get a total of $8,000 in stimulus checks for the household.

Another part of the president's COVID rescue package boosts the child tax credit to give low- and moderate-income families $3,000 for each child between the ages of 6 and 17 for 2021. Half that money would be paid out in monthly installments (a different kind of "stimulus check") during the second half of the year.

So, the Smiths would receive an additional $6,000 for the kids — for a grand total of $14,000 in government relief this year.

Some households stand to get even more than that, notes a report from the financial services firm Raymond James.

How do you collect more than $14K?

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https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/stimulus-checks-14-000-windfall-010000221.html