Eligible adults received up to $1,200 in pandemic relief

As COVID-19 shut down much of the country in March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act. One of its most direct pieces was a cash payment to households, sent automatically to most eligible people.

Eligible adults got up to $1,200, married couples filing jointly up to $2,400, and families another $500 for each qualifying child under 17. The full amount went to single filers with incomes up to $75,000, heads of household up to $112,500 and joint filers up to $150,000. Payments shrank by 5% of income above those levels. People who had filed a 2018 or 2019 tax return generally got their money automatically by direct deposit or mail. Social Security, SSI, railroad retirement and VA beneficiaries were paid automatically too. Other people who didn’t normally file had to send the IRS basic information. By May 31, 2020, the government had sent 160.4 million payments worth $269 billion.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley was lead author of the recovery-check provisions in the Senate’s first CARES Act proposal, introduced by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin helped negotiate the final agreement; Treasury had proposed direct payments days earlier. The agreement dropped a plan to give the lowest-income people only $600. Congress paid for it by borrowing, as emergency relief. The bill passed the Senate 96–0 and the House by voice vote, and President Donald Trump signed it on March 27, 2020. People who missed a payment could claim it on a 2020 tax return until May 17, 2024.