New round of $1,400 stimulus checks includes ‘plus-up’ payments for Americans who have filed tax returns

THE latest round of $1,400 stimulus checks includes “plus-up” payments for those who filed their 2020 tax returns showing a significant change in income.

In the sixth batch of the third stimulus check, the IRS added a “plus-up” bonus to the $1,400 check, bringing the total number of payments the agency doled out to over 161 million.

Over $379 billion has been distributed to Americans via direct payments since the first round of stimulus checks in March, with two million checks distributed in the latest round, coming out to just over $3.4 billion.

Of these, about 900,000 were issued through direct deposits while 1.1 million were mailed.

But what makes this round so special is they included special “plus-up” payments given that some recipients eligible for the stimulus check filed their 2020 taxes.

Given the checks are basically credits in advance of one’s tax returns, the previous stimulus checks were relying on Americans’ 2019 taxes, which did not represent the massive unemployment experienced during the pandemic.

Those who received checks in the sixth round were people the IRS did not have on record, meaning well over 700,000 of the checks distributed were issued to people who filed their 2020 tax returns.

The government has encouraged those who do not receive federal benefits, nor typically file tax returns, to file this year in order to get their payment information on file and receive their stimulus checks.

A recovery rebate credit was also added to this year’s tax form allowing people to claim any of the previous stimulus checks if they had yet to receive them.

About $1.2 billion was distributed for the 700,000 new 2020 tax filers in the form of “plus-up” payments.

The IRS is likely to also send additional funds to those people who have had different circumstances reflected in their 2020 tax returns compared to 2019.

The latest round of checks also included about 600,000 payments to those who received Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits.

For those who have not yet received their $1,400 checks, the IRS urges you to file a tax return this year.