IRS stimulus check update: Am I getting a ‘plus-up’ payment? New details if you’re still waiting

The so-called plus-up payments were first announced at the beginning of this month and continue to go out in weekly batches. According to the IRS, the latest batch of Economic Impact Payments included more than 730,000 new plus-up payments, totaling some $1.3 billion. If the checks were sent via direct deposit, they should already be in your bank account with a payment date of Wednesday, April 28. However, many of these payments were sent via the United States Postal Service and will arrive as paper checks. Those could take a few weeks.

How do you know if you’re eligible for a plus-up payment? Basically, if you already received a smaller stimulus payment based on your 2019 tax returns, and your tax situation has since changed—for instance, your income dropped in 2020 or you had a child—you could receive a supplemental payment to make up the difference after you file your 2020 taxes. One way to check is to sign into your online tax account, which should show a history of your Economic Impact Payments.

In total, the latest batch of stimulus checks included 2 million payments, totaling $4.3 billion, the IRS said. About 1.1 million of those were sent via direct deposit, and the other 850,000 were sent by mail. So if you’re still waiting, keep checking your mailbox.