Austin Goergen, a student at Oregon State University, initiated a petition last year to allow dependents 17 and older to opt for stimulus checks.
Austin Goergen
Washington lawmakers are one step closer to authorizing new $ 1,400 stimulus controls for millions of Americans.
This time, a large group could be eligible for the first time: dependents over the age of 17.
This is provided that the bill that the House of Representatives plans to pass and pass in the Senate in its current form is approved. Legislation is expected to end in mid-March.
This change would be great news for people like Austin Goergen, 20, a student at Oregon State University, who last year initiated a Change.org petition when he realized that the first $ 1,200 stimulus checks they would exclude those like him and his colleagues who had been claimed as dependents.
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Goergen’s petition garnered nearly 5,000 signatures. Still, the second $ 600 stimulus checks authorized by Congress in December continued to exclude individuals from that cohort, despite some calls on both sides of the aisle to change those terms.
Earlier estimates by the American Enterprise Institute have indicated that expanding stimulus payments to dependent adults could make up to 26 million people more eligible for money.
This would generally cover college students as well as adults with disabilities who may have been claimed by a concierge.
“It just seemed like a very big oversight,” Goergen said.
The new bill will likely require dependent adults to coordinate with those who claimed them and will therefore receive the money. However, Goergen said it is an improvement over previous payments.
“I think the current bill in terms of how it approaches stimulus controls does a much better job,” he said.
Who could qualify for the new $ 1,400 checks
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The legislative proposal provides for $ 1,400 per person, as long as they are below certain income thresholds.
Individuals with adjusted gross incomes of up to $ 75,000 will be able to obtain full payments, as well as heads of households earning up to $ 112,500 and married couples who jointly file up to $ 150,000.
Checks would be reduced for income above these thresholds and limited to $ 100,000 in income for applicant applicants, $ 150,000 for heads of households, and $ 200,000 for joint applicants.
This time, phasing-out rates are based on filing status and the number of children you have, said Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation.
“This is really because they wanted to make sure that applicants above a certain income level did not receive any payment,” Watson said.
People should take that into account when determining how much money they should expect this time, he said.
As with the second $ 600 incentive payments, families with mixed-status households would also be eligible, where only one spouse has a valid social security number. Payments will go to the eligible spouse and their children, as long as they also have valid Social Security numbers.
The House Roads and Means Committee has called for payments to be based on 2019 or 2020 tax returns.
As long as the legislation is passed without delay, experts expect the $ 1,400 deposits could begin to arrive by the end of March.