What’s in the Second Stimulus Package?          

What’s in the Second Stimulus Package?

After several months of lengthy negotiations that seemingly moved at a snail’s pace, finally, Congress agreed on the second stimulus package under the Consolidated Appropriations Act.

The second stimulus package contains funding for a new round of stimulus checks, small business aid funding, the Paycheck Protection Program, and continued enhanced benefits for unemployment, just to name a few.

Here is a quick overview of what is included in the second stimulus package:

$600 Stimulus Checks

The second stimulus package consists of one more round of stimulus checks or economic impact payments to Americans. This new bill offers $600 for those who meet certain requirements for income and an extra $600 for every qualifying child.

The amount of payment will decrease by $5 for each $100 made more than $75,000 income threshold for individuals, $112,500 for the heads of households, and $150,000 for the married couples with joint application. The income thresholds are based on the tax information for 2019.

Extended Enhanced Unemployment Benefits:

An extra $300 for unemployment benefits for every week through the month of March will be provided by the federal government.

The boost is half of what CARES Act offered but there is no doubt that Americans will welcome it as a lifetime. The latest statistics revealed that more than 19 million Americans are on unemployment aid right now and the figures for job growth are stagnating.

The self-employed, freelancers, and gig workers can enjoy eligibility for unemployment benefits that the CARES Act has initially provided.

Housing Assistance:

There are two housing provisions under the second stimulus package. The first one is the $25 billion worth of emergency assistance funds for the renters that they can use for paying utility bills, future, and past-due rent. The second one is the extension of CDC eviction moratorium up to the 31^st of January.

In certain instances, renters need to provide the written attestation where they swear to meet the requirements that were stated.

Paycheck Protection Program Funding:

Also known as PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program will get another funding worth $284 billion. The program offers businesses with loans of up to $10 million and could be forgiven in case the businesses make use of the funds for certain criteria such as the use of a minimum of 75% of this to continue to pay employees or rehire employees that were laid off or furloughed due to the pandemic.

Special Lookback for Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit

The new stimulus package will let you use the 2019 tax year’s earned income to identify the refundable part of Child Tax Credit and your EITC or Earned Income Tax Credit. The bill’s summary states that this will be of big help to the workers experiencing lower wages this year because of the pandemic to receive a bigger refund consistent with the earnings they had before the filing seasons.

The second stimulus package offers much-needed assistance to all struggling Americans. While it might fall short in certain aspects, it is still a big help in these times of need.