In a race against the new year, the Trump administration will start sending stimulus payments to Americans this week.
President Donald Trump signed the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law Sunday night, after calling the package a "disgrace" and delaying it for days.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Tuesday the department "has delivered a payment file to the Federal Reserve for Americans' Economic Impact Payments."
Qualifying Americans could begin to receive their stimulus starting Tuesday night and paper checks will begin to be dispatched on Wednesday.
Who isn't getting a stimulus check?
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.
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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, one-time amount of $600, which is half the value of the first 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 filing 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 first 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 significantly 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 file their 2020 tax return, according to Toby Mathis, a partner and attorney at Anderson Law Group in Las Vegas, Nevada.