Who Is Eligible for a “Plus-Up” Stimulus Check Payment?

As we all remember, U.S. President Joe Biden signed The American Rescue Plan into law on March 11. This authorized the third round of stimulus checks for many individuals and families in America.

Many more U.S. citizens have filed their 2020 tax returns. Therefore, the IRS is finding that they owe more money to some tax filers. Significantly, the IRS used the information from the past year’s returns for the payments. This may have resulted in lower check amounts for some individuals.

The question is, who’s eligible for further checks. When the IRS acted quickly to send out the third round of stimulus checks, it relied on information from the most recent tax returns that were submitted. For many individuals, that was their 2019 tax return. The essential thing to mention is that now that more people and families have filed their 2020 tax returns, they may be owed more money, as recently filed tax returns may reflect life changes.

The IRS sends out additional checks to get people the money they are owed, what it calls “plus-up” payments.

Who will get “plus-up”?

Let’s see who may be eligible for a “plus-up” stimulus check payment:

1.         People with income changes: If the income listed on an individual’s 2020 tax return is different than what was listed on his 2019 tax return, he may be eligible for another check. For instance, someone may have had a 2019 income that was too high to receive the most recent round of checks, though their 2020 income is lower and now qualifies.

2.         People who had a child or added a dependant: If the child or dependant wasn’t listed on the 2019 tax return but now is listed on the 2020 tax return, a family may be eligible for another check. Many people had a child after filing their 2019 tax returns.