[UPDATED JULY 31] Your Second Stimulus Check

Here’s a quick update on The Heroes Act Proposal – and your second stimulus check. Are you going to get one?

Go Directly To: SECOND STIMULUS UPDATE July 31

Go Directly To: SECOND STIMULUS UPDATE July 28 – the counter proposal, The Heals Act

Although we’ve re-opened the country, covid has not gone away. In fact, it’s arguably worse than it was when it hit. Millions of Americans are still out of work. No one’s spending money. The number of infected is still rising. Protests are everywhere. It’s a mad world right now.

In response to the widespread pandemonium, in May the House proposed The Heroes Act.

We’re not going to get into the politics of who said what and why. All we really want is the truth and the bottom line so that you can be informed on what will impact you. We feel if we don’t assign a particular argument to a one side or the other, then we can decide for ourselves which parts of the proposal we agree with or not without biased influence.

So, here’s what’s been proposed and discussed:

The Second Stimulus Package Proposal

Extension of unemployment benefits

Many want to make sure people do not make more money staying home than they do working so that they have the incentive to return to work
The additional unemployment payment is proposed to be around 200-400/week or $600
The unemployment amount is based on how much the applicant made at his or her previous job

Second stimulus check

It’s proposed that the checks will amount to the following:

$1,200 to individuals
$2,400 to married couples
Additional $1,200 for each dependent child, up to $6,000

Tax credits

New tax credits for self-employed and small businesses
Tax credits for people getting back to work
Tax credits for businesses creating safe work environments

Five years liability protection

For schools
Businesses
Medical personnel
This is intended to prevent frivolous lawsuits

200 billion in hazard pay for first responders and frontline workers

75 billion in increased coronavirus testing

175 billion in rent and mortgage assistance

Who Qualifies for the Second Stimulus Check?

It seems law makers are prioritizing low-income and unemployed people. Which means, even if you received a stimulus check last time around, you might not qualify this time.

Other proposals have included people who were left out the first time. The original proposal lays it out like this:

Those who have an adjusted gross income from 2018 or 19 of less than $99k
College students and dependents over 17
Disabled relatives
Taxpayers’ parents
Families up to five people
SSDI recipients
People who aren’t US citizens who pay taxes and file a tax return

It has also been proposed to cap the qualifying income limit at $40k

Areas of High Conflict

This is what is most in dispute between Republicans and Democrats:

The payroll tax cut has been proposed in place of a check. This would provide a tax cut from paychecks. The arguments are that it only impacts the employed and if it made a difference, it would by very slowly over a long period of time. It doesn’t help the millions who are unemployed. And it’s argued that a check in hand would do more for the economy than the slow impact of a small tax cut over time.

The qualifying threshold is in dispute. Some want it as low as $40,000, which means to qualify for the stimulus check, you’d have to make less than $40,000/year. The argument to this is that there are areas where $60,000 is considered low income. These people need help, too
Public schools – The conflict is between applying federal policy to schools or allowing the states and local governments to decide what’s best for their schools
Unemployment benefits – $600/week vs $200-400/week
Stimulus check – the $1200 amount is not generally in dispute at the moment. We just included it here to let you know
State and local governments – $1 Trillion vs no new aid at all to state and local governments
Stimulus Package Size – $3 Trillion vs $1 Trillion – the general argument is that one side believes we will experience a quick economic recovery and the other does not believe it. Which one do you think it will be?

This video explains the arguments as unbiasedly as we’ve seen so far:

ClearValue Tax

SECOND STIMULUS UPDATE July 31

NEGOTIATIONS – Are Still Going…

Here’s the rundown in a nutshell:

Lawmakers for the Most Part Agree to the Following:

They agree on extending unemployment benefits.
They agree on giving a second stimulus check

In Dispute:

The biggest dispute among lawmakers is the liability protection for covid-related law suits
- Some want more protection for business owners, for example, while others vie for employee protection

Also Proposed or Discussed or Said:

President Trump wants to create a second eviction protection plan to pass immediately to protect renters
President Trump says your second stimulus check may be greater than $1200
- In response to the question, is $1200 is enough, Trump responded with, “We’re going to see. It may go higher than that. I’d like to see it be very high because I love the people.”

NEW PROPOSAL:

$1000 Stimulus check and $1000 per child and or dependent – the original offer was $1200 for individual, plus $1200 per dependent; the counter offer was $1200 for individual and $500 per dependent
White house offered four proposals to extend unemployment benefits and renters in danger of eviction. They were rejected.

In short, keep in mind that anything discussed or said cannot happen until both the House and Senate vote it into law. The $1200 Trump talked about above, for example, has already been agreed upon (for the most part; as you can see, a new amount has been proposed since he said that), so it’s not likely to increase, even if Trump wants it to.

As long as there are pieces of this bill that are in dispute between, the law will not pass.

Lawmakers had an end date of today (July 31). As of yet, we don’t have a final order. Check back here later today and tomorrow for an update.

For more details, view this video by ClearValue Tax:

ClearValue Tax Second Stimulus Update

This guy is great because, for the most part you’re just getting the facts and not too much of his opinion – so you can make up your own mind without too much biased influence.

SECOND STIMULUS UPDATE July 28

HEALS ACT- Health Economic Assistance and Liability Protection and Schools Act

The Republicans have released their counter proposal. It goes as fallows:

Second stimulus check – same, $1200 per individual. Adult depends will qualify. Income levels remain the same as the previous package. This is good news because both parties are in agreement on this.
Unemployment benefits – extension of unemployment benefits at $200/week through the end of September, after which benefits become determined by income replacement method. This means up to 75% of previous wages, with a $500/week cap. The reason for this is because they do not want to use taxpayer money to pay people more money for them being unemployed instead of working.
Arguments for unemployment benefits – the $200 amount is in dispute, however, there could be an agreement if the terms of the second stimulus check were improved, and other areas of the stimulus package can be compromised on.
SBA PPP loan money – self-employed and small business owners would qualify for a second round if they have 300 or fewer employees, and sales declined by fifty percent or more. Modifies qualifying expenses for the loan money. It likely won’t get much opposition.
Liability Protection – businesses, schools, and medical personnel, would be protected from frivolous lawsuits by making them only liable for gross negligence and putting people at risk for covid. The argument here is that this could prevent these institutions from providing a higher degree of safety for employees, students, and patients.
Tax deductions and credits – increasing tax deception for meals for small businesses to 100% (from 50%), Worker retention credits, credits for cleaning, deductions for testing, protective equipment and protective measures taken for customers, and others.
Incentives – for American manufacturers to produce PPP domestically instead of overseas.
Healthcare funding – diagnostic treatment and future vaccine.

This proposal was designed to promote jobs, healthcare and kids. This is just a proposal. Negotiations still need to happen. As far as we know, lawmakers plan to finalize and sign into law by the end of the month. We’ll keep you posted.

Here’s a video that explains the proposal in better detail

When Would You Get Your Check?

Lawmakers intend to pass the second stimulus package into law by the end of July.

If it passes, checks could start going out in August. The exact timing is unknown. But, based on how the IRS managed it last time, and that they now have a system in place, it’s reasonable to expect similar or better timing.

We’ll let you know the moment we have a conclusive timeline for you.