Your stimulus check needs to be mailed by Jan. 15 — how to make sure you get yours

Your stimulus check needs to be mailed by Jan. fifteen — how to make sure you go yours

(Prototype credit: Getty Images)

The IRS has begun distributing stimulus check two — the $600-per-person payment authorized past lawmakers late last calendar month — and straight deposits should exist appearing in bank accounts as early as today (Jan. 4).

But the window for sending out relief payments is narrow, and those who don't receive a check in the next two weeks volition demand to claim their missing payments on their 2020 tax returns. The legislation approved past Congress gives the Treasury Department only until January. 15 to distribute this second round of checks.

Second stimulus check status: Latest updates, corporeality and who gets it
Stimulus check IRS phone number: How to phone call about your payment
Plus: Stimulus cheque tool tracks your payment status: How to use information technology

While Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that relief will likely get out much more chop-chop now than information technology did final spring, in function because the IRS at present has more than information about eligible recipients on file, it is possible that some Americans will be left hanging after the last checks are mailed out Jan. 15.

If that happens, you'll take to take a few extra steps to go your 2d stimulus cheque — and y'all may not see those funds until February at the earliest.

How to claim a missing check

Americans who are eligible for stimulus check 2 but whose payment isn't candy before Jan. 15 will have to merits the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2020 revenue enhancement render using Grade 1040 or 1040-SR. Those who received less money than they call up they should have qualified for in either stimulus payment tin can likewise merits this credit.

While tax flavour begins erstwhile this calendar month (the IRS has not yet posted a specific date when its gratuitous filing programs are expected to become available), refunds by and large take three weeks to be candy and sent out. And so fifty-fifty if you claim your Recovery Rebate Credit on the first filing mean solar day and submit your return electronically, you lot may non encounter a eolith immediately.

Track your stimulus payment

You tin come across the condition of your second stimulus bank check using the Become My Payment tool on IRS.gov, including the date(s) of your first and second payments equally well equally payment method (either paper bank check or straight deposit).

But keep in mind that the income ceilings are lower this fourth dimension around: If yous make more than than $87,000 as an private, you won't get annihilation, as opposed to $99,000 the last fourth dimension effectually. (Those numbers double for spouses filing jointly.)

Emily Long is a Utah-based freelance author who covers consumer technology, privacy and personal finance for Tom'southward Guide. She has been reporting and writing for nigh x years, and her work has appeared in Wirecutter, Lifehacker, NBC Ameliorate and CN Traveler, among others. When she's non working, yous can observe her trail running, teaching and practicing yoga, or studying for grad school — all fueled past coffee, obviously.