Consumer Stimulus Payments Expected This Week

People with direct deposit on file with the IRS will be among the first to get coronavirus relief funds when stimulus payments start going out this week, according to numerous reports Sunday (April 12).

A senior Treasury Department official told NBC News that tens of millions of people using direct deposit will see money by Wednesday (April 15).

Initial payments had already started being deposited into bank accounts on Friday night (April 10), the official said.

“We know many people are anxious to get their payments; we’ll continue issuing them as fast as we can,” the IRS tweeted on Saturday (April 11).

People who have not filed tax returns for 2018 or 2019 or do not have direct deposit on file with the IRS, will likely have to wait weeks or months to get a payment, CNN reported. The IRS is urging taxpayers who haven’t filed yet to do so fast — including people who don’t typically file a tax return, such as individuals earning less than $12,200 in 2019.

The IRS anticipates roughly 5 million paper checks will go out weekly starting the week of May 4 and could take 20 weeks to distribute, according to a separate CNN report that cited a House Democratic memo. Checks will go out first to people with the lowest adjusted gross income.

The IRS has until year-end to make the payments, CARES Act legislation indicates.

The CARES Act provides for $2 trillion in coronavirus stimulus relief and was passed on March 27. It offers unemployment insurance and forgivable loans to small businesses and large corporations. About 80 percent of Americans are eligible to receive a stimulus payment, according to the IRS.

Most adults making less than an adjusted gross income of $75,000 annually will receive a $1,200 one-time payment. Married couples without children will receive a total of $2,400 if their joint income is less than $150,000 annually. Households with dependent children will also receive $500 for each child if the parent’s income qualifies.

A website portal to check the status of coronavirus payments is launching by Friday (April 17), along with a portal to help people apply for payment if they are not required to file for taxes.