Is your third stimulus check the right amount? Make sure the IRS sent your full payment

Whether you received your third stimulus check already or not, it’s important that every American reviews the eligibility rules and calculates their own payment total. Why isn’t it enough to rely on the IRS? Because you could potentially miss out on money owed to you. There are a number of reasons why you might receive less cash than you’re owed, but the only way to know — and to remedy the situation — is to first do your own calculations.

March 24 is the IRS deadline for delivering direct deposit payments for the third stimulus check, which maxes out at $1,400. If you didn’t receive a check in your bank account, you should expect it to arrive in the mail instead, either as a paper check or an EIP card. Once you calculate how much you’re entitled to below, you can also track your check with the IRS’ own tracker tool and through the USPS.

Our stimulus check calculator uses the IRS formula and your adjusted gross income, or AGI, and dependent information to give you a personalized estimate of your payment total, without retaining your personal details in any way. When you’re done, here’s what to know about claiming missing stimulus money on your 2020 tax return (if, for instance, you had a baby in 2020). And here’s what we know so far about a potential fourth stimulus check. This story was recently updated.

Should you have gotten a bigger stimulus check? Calculate your payment just in case

The Senate made a notable change to the third check before the bill was signed into law by reducing the upper income limit to receive any check. If your AGI is equal to or more than $80,000 (single taxpayers), $120,000 (head of household), or $160,000 (filing jointly), you won’t be eligible. See below for more details.

Note that this calculator should be used as an estimate only. If you think the check size you receive is in error and doesn’t match your below estimate, it’s possible you may need to claim the rest of your payment at a later time.

Here’s who will get the full stimulus amount and when you’ll completely phase out of receiving a payment, using the new guidelines that were officially signed into law. As an individual or couple’s income goes up, the size of the partial payment gets smaller. (Here’s our first stimulus check calculator, and here’s the calculator for the $600 second check.)

Stimulus check income limits

	Full $1,400 per person maximum (based on AGI)	Not eligible (based on AGI)
Individual taxpayer	Less than $75,000	$80,000 or more
Head of household	Less than $112,500	$120,000 or more
Married couple filing jointly	Less than $150,000	$160,000 or more

What if your stimulus check doesn’t match your calculated total?

There are a number of reasons your stimulus check might be smaller than you were expecting — or nonexistent. Maybe you receive SSDI or SSI benefits or other federal benefits, which have not been sent out yet. Or perhaps your payment was based on your 2019 taxes instead of 2020. Checks that are missing altogether can be tracked using a few different tools, and missing money can be claimed in a few different ways. Read our guide to stimulus check problems for solutions to these and other issues.

3 new dependent eligibility guidelines to know

There are three new rules for the third stimulus check that affect you if you have dependents. 

• Each dependent counts for $1,400.
• Dependents are no longer restricted by age. College students, adult children with disabilities and older adult relatives will now count toward $1,400 each. 
• Unlike the first two checks, you can’t receive any money if you exceed the upper income limit, even if you have dependents. 

An extreme example of the last one: a single parent of four who makes $120,000 won’t qualify, where a single parent with four dependents who makes $119,000 will still get some amount of money. The amended bill also includes families with mixed citizenship status; that is, where at least one family member is a US citizen.

Expanding qualifications to dependents of any age makes approximately 13.5 million more adult dependents count toward their household total, according to The People’s Policy Project. 

Read more: Stimulus money, tax breaks for kids, older adults: Not just a $1,400 check

For more information on stimulus checks, here’s what to know about the IRS timeline for sending checks, what parents of 2020 babies should do to recoup missing money from the first two payments, and everything we know so far about a potential fourth stimulus check. 

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