Congress Approves COVID-19 Stimulus Package
Congress overwhelmingly passed the largest rescue package in American history to support the U.S. economy with approximately $2 trillion in aid in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 stimulus package contains direct payments to Americans, an aggressive expansion of unemployment insurance, billions in aid to large and small businesses, and a new wave of significant funding for the health care industry.
In case you didn’t have time to read the entire CARES Act, E. Cohen took the liberty of summarizing it here for you.
Let’s start with direct payments to Americans.
If you earn less than $75,000, or you and your spouse collectively make less than $150,000, you’ll get $1,200 for each of you plus $500 for each child under 17. Those amounts are reduced for people with higher incomes, and individuals with $99,000 in earnings (or $198,000 for a couple) get nothing, even if they have children. How much a citizen will receive is based on what you provided the IRS on your 2019 income tax filing. For those that have not filed yet, the IRS will use the data from your 2018 filing. Americans who don’t earn enough to be required to file a tax return can submit one to the IRS now to make sure the agency has accurate information on them. It is estimated this this part of the stimulus package will cost nearly $300 billion dollars.
So, where will the remaining $1.7 trillion go?
There are simply too many vital programs in this nearly $2 trillion stimulus package to list here. However, the following is a high-level summary:
You can read the entire law by clicking here. Clients are strongly advised to contact their E. Cohen advisor/preparer to learn more about this new law and how it might impact your business and/or personal financial situation.
