2M stimulus payments coming from state soon

At least 2 million direct deposits from the Golden State Stimulus II program will hit bank accounts across California next week, following the first round of 600,000 payments that went out Aug. 27, the Franchise Tax Board said Thursday.

Eligible taxpayers will get $600 and qualifying families with children will receive an additional $500.

Similar to the federal stimulus payments, California’s distribution is first being sent by direct deposit to bank accounts used for annual tax refunds. Paper checks will be mailed to residents beginning in early October, a representative of the Tax Franchise Board said.

Most direct deposit payments will be issued before Oct. 15. Those who filed a state tax return after Aug. 20, should expect to wait 45 days for the return to be processed and a payment issued.

To qualify, residents must file 2020 taxes by Oct. 15, 2021; have adjusted gross income of $0 to $75,000 for the 2020 tax year; be a state resident for more than half of the 2020 tax year; be a state resident the date payment is issued; cannot be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer; a dependent is a qualifying child or qualifying relative.

Excluded from the payments are those whose income is solely derived from benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and State Supplementary Payment (SSP) and the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), Social Security, CalWorks, unemployment, state disability insurance (SDI) and VA disability. Participants in an earlier round of stimulus payments also are excluded.

To get an estimate on your California stimulus payment, go to ftb.ca.gov