USA TODAY International Edition

Here’s who would not get the $ 600 stimulus check

- Jessica Menton Contributi­ng: Michael Collins

Congress has passed a COVID- 19 relief bill that will provide a second round of stimulus checks to millions of Americans as soon as next week – assuming President Donald Trump doesn’t veto it.

But not everyone is eligible for those direct payments. Many students, for instance, don’t qualify. Neither do immigrants who don’t have a Social Security number. Some elderly and disabled people won’t get a check either, along with high- wage earners.

The payments, which aim to give Americans a quick cash infusion, will be distribute­d if Trump signs the bill into federal law. That routine signing was upended late Tuesday when the president criticized the bill and urged Congress to increase the stimulus checks to $ 2,000 from $ 600, although he stopped short of threatenin­g to veto it as of Wednesday afternoon.

Here’s who will be left out once the checks start arriving:

High- wage earners

If your income is too high, you won’t get a check. The payments are phased out for Americans at income thresholds based on their 2019 tax returns.

For instance, individual­s earning up to $ 75,000, and couples making less than $ 150,000 will receive the full, onetime amount of $ 600, which is half the value of the first round of $ 1,200 checks issued under the CARES Act in March. The amount drops by $ 5 for every $ 100 of income above those income thresholds. It will phase out completely at $ 87,000 for individual­s and $ 174,000 for couples. If you claimed the head of household filing status on your tax return, you won’t get a payment if your adjusted gross income exceeds $ 124,500.

Unemployed high- wage earners

Eligibilit­y for stimulus checks will be determined by 2019 tax returns, a change from the first round of payments that were based on 2018 or 2019

tax returns. That could change how much you receive and whether you get a second check. If you earned more than $ 87,000 last year but are unemployed in 2020, you won’t be eligible for a payment.

Some people who earned significantly less income this year than they did on their 2019 tax return could be eligible for a refundable tax credit for their second stimulus payment when they file their 2020 tax return, according to Toby Mathis, a partner and attorney at Anderson Law Group in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Students

Students age 17 or older don’t qualify for a stimulus check if their parents or guardians claim them as dependents. That means the stimulus excludes millions of high school and college- aged Americans. Their parents also won’t get a payment of $ 600 per child that the new stimulus package offers. It applies only to children 16 and younger. There is no cap on the number of child dependents that a household can claims, so a family of four would receive up to $ 2,400.

Some elderly and disabled adults

Adult dependents don’t qualify for a check, which means an elderly parent or family member living under the care of an adult child that is claimed as a dependent won’t get a direct payment.

Some immigrants

Those without Social Security numbers, typically unauthoriz­ed immigrants, aren’t eligible.

Some immigrants qualify for a stimulus check if they meet the eligibilit­y criteria and have a valid Social Security number. Immigrants with green cards or H- 1B and H- 2A work visas are eligible for a check.

Nonresiden­t aliens, temporary workers and immigrants in the country illegally aren’t eligible.

But mixed- status households, or those where a family member doesn’t have a Social Security number but others do, will be eligible for stimulus payments, a key change from the CARES Act. Under that legislatio­n, households that had a single member without a Social Security number were disqualified.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Stimulus payments will not be taxed — and you may be eligible to collect additional stimulus money.
GETTY IMAGES Stimulus payments will not be taxed — and you may be eligible to collect additional stimulus money.

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