Are you ok with how the stimulus is calculated?
Asked by
JLeslie (
65714
)
December 31st, 2020
from iPhone
I’m talking about this second time around, not the first stimulus.
People will get a full stimulus payment if their AGI is less then $75k for a single and $150k for a couple.
People who make the same money they were making a few years ago are going to get the money. Let’s say a couple making $220k gross who puts $50k away in 401k money and $7k in HSA money and deduct the $24k the government gives them off the top, I think that person making $220k gross is already down to $139k after stashing away $57k in tax sheltered funds so they get the stimulus. Is that right? The poor and lower middle class can’t do that. They also might have hundreds of thousands if not millions in the bank or brokerage accounts.
The first stimulus they gave out money with these simple parameters because it would be too time consuming to analyze if people really needed stimulus money, but this time do you think it should go to people who actually lost their jobs or are Lower income sand having a hard time paying bills.
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15 Answers
No. From an egalitarian point of view, I should get something even though I make more than the limit. So as currently designed, I won’t see a red cent. That seems wrong to me.
I don’t question that lower income people need the $$ more than I do, and should get more, but it seems like everyone should get some token amount.
I’m not rich, and I work for a living. Why not a token for us?
I’m just thinking Trump might get a check.
If anyone gets a check they think they don’t deserve, they should donate it.
Correction: From what I read the $24K every couple gets is not included in reducing the AGI.
Nobody is getting 24 thousand.
@Jeruba I mean the deduction from your income on the tax return. I don’t think deduction is the right word. Singles get $12k and married couples get $24k.
From my initial look-see, my wife and daughter will get $600 each. I will not because I make too much. Bonus though – my wife’s unemployment just got extended for another 20 weeks.
I’m okay with this.
Supposedly, the direct payments are not intended to just get people able to function. It is to encourage circulation of cash, enabling economic revitalization.
@JLeslie, don’t you mean 24 hundred? $2400, not $24,000?
Oh, ok. I misunderstood your saying “get” that amount.
Anyway, to answer the question: as a senior, retired and on a fixed income, I wouldn’t mind having a little extra. But I would have preferred an arrangement that distributed a bigger sum to the neediest and skipped people who were managing okay, even if that meant I didn’t get anything. It would actually take nothing away from me to just not get free money.
@Jeruba Sorry about the bad wording, I’m not sure how else to word it. I think of it as a deduction we are given. Thanks for sticking with me so I could explain what I meant, and thanks for answering the Q. People seem to be very split on the stimulus.
@Jeruba “Nobody is getting 24 thousand.”
– Well, despite the mis-reading, I think some Europeans already have received that amount or more from their governments. I think even Canadians get like $1433 / month. Many Europeans have been getting rather more per month.
@Zaku: Comparatively, the US aid is rather paltry.
Some people gamed the system in some of those European countries. I could have probably applied for unemployment here in the US, but I didn’t do it.
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