Your Second Stimulus Check Could Arrive As Early As Tonight Via Direct Deposit

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced it would begin issuing $600 stimulus checks via direct deposit as early as Tuesday night, delivering aid to millions of Americans after months of waiting.

In a Tuesday night tweet, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the Department has started sending money to the bank accounts of Americans who have given their income information to the IRS.

“@USTreasury has delivered a payment file to the @FederalRnternal Revenue Service. eserve for Americans’ Economic Impact Payments. These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week,” Mnuchin tweeted.

The Treasury department will begin mailing paper checks on Wednesday, according to a press release.

“Paper checks will begin to be mailed tomorrow, Wednesday, December 30,” the department stated. “This second round of payments will provide critical economic support to those who, through no fault of their own, have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Some Americans may see the direct deposit payments as “pending” or as “provisional payments” before the official payment date of Jan. 4, 2021, the IRS pointed out. Americans can check the status of their checks at IRS.gov/GetMyPayment.

Eligible individual Americans who earned up to $75,000 in 2019 would receive a $600 stimulus check. Couples filing jointly who made up to $150,000 would get $1,200. There is also an additional $600 for each child dependent.

The government did not introduce a cap on the number of dependents a household can claim, which means a family with two adults and two children can receive $2,400 in direct payments.

The size of the checks will decrease by $5 for every $100 above the income threshold. The payments are phased out for individuals who earned above $87,000 in 2019 or couples who made $174,000.

The $600 stimulus checks are part of the $900 billion bipartisan legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law late Sunday. The new economic relief package will also provide jobless Americans $300 in weekly federal unemployment benefits. It would also revive the unemployment programs established by March’s CARES Act.