Who is eligible for the third Economic Impact payment?

Individuals with adjusted gross income (AGI) up to $75,000, head of household filers with AGI up to $112,500, and married couples with AGI up to $150,000 received the full payment.  The payments phase out for taxpayers with earnings above those amounts.  Under this phase out process, individuals with AGI of $80,000 or more, head of household filers with AGI of $120,000 or more, and married couples with AGI of $160,000 or more did not receive a payment.  With certain exceptions (listed below), you must have filed a 2020 or 2019 tax return to have received a payment.  Payments were provided regardless of employment status.

Generally, individuals will need to have filed a tax return in 2020 or 2019 or have filled out a Non-filers tool for an earlier round of Economic Impact Payments or the Child Tax Credit to receive their third payment.  However, as with the first and second Economic Impact Payments, IRS announced that the following groups of people would also automatically receive their individual payment:

•           Recipients of Social Security retirement, disability (SSDI), survivor benefits, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

•           Recipients of Veterans Affairs benefits

•           Individuals who receive Railroad Retirement benefits

The full payment for taxpayers who file individually is $1,200.  The full payment for married couples who file jointly is $2,400.  Filers will receive an additional $500 per dependent under the age of 17.  The total payment amount is subject to the income levels explained in the eligibility section above.  For filers without dependents, the payment completely phases out for individuals with AGI above $99,000 and joint filers with AGI above $198,000.  Filers with dependents will have higher phase out levels, subject to their filing status and the number of eligible dependents they claim. 

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will use 2019 tax returns to determine each filer’s AGI.  The IRS will use 2018 tax returns for taxpayers who have not yet filed 2019 returns.

If you believe you are eligible for the first and/or second Economic Impact Payments but did not receive a payment, or received less than the amount you believe you are eligible for, you may claim the full credit you are eligible for on your 2020 tax return. To claim a credit you believed IRS missed, you must file a 2020 tax return even if you do not usually file a tax return

The IRS has announced that the following groups of people will automatically receive their individual payment:

Any other individual who did not file a 2018 or 2019 return will need to file a simple return through the IRS’ Non-Filers tool to receive their payment.  This tool is available HERE.

In order to receive your third Economic Impact Payment, you must have either 1) filed a 2020 tax return; 2) filed a 2019 tax return; 3) used IRS’s Non-Filers tool to register for the first Economic Impact Payment in 2020; 4) used IRS’s Child Tax Credit Non-filer Sign-up Tool to register for the expanded Child Tax Credit in 2021; or 5) be a recipient of any of the federal benefit programs listed above. If you and your dependents are eligible for the third Economic 

Impact Payment but you do not fall into one of these five categories and did not receive your payment, you may file a 2021 tax return in early 2022 and claim your payment then. 

Your payment was automatically deposited directly into the bank account you used when filing your 2020 tax return (or 2019 return if IRS did not have your 2020 return when processing your payment).  If you do not have a bank account or did not provide IRS with any bank account information, you should have received your payment through the mail as either a U.S. Treasury check or an Economic Impact Payment debit card.

The status of most payments can be viewed on IRS’s Get My Payment webpage, which is accessible HERE.  If the payment has not yet been processed, recipients whose bank account information has changed since they filed their relevant tax return can also use this page to update their bank account information.

Individuals who will receive their check through the mail can learn how to update their address HERE.

No.  The payment is not considered income and is treated like other refundable tax credits, such as the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit (EITC).

The IRS provides more information about these payments HERE.