Who is eligible for the california stimulus check

California 2022 stimulus: Who’s eligible for inflation relief payments and when they’ll arrive

UPDATE: Here’s when the first batch of California inflation relief checks will go out.

It’s official: Most Californians who filed their taxes in 2020 will get one-time payments totaling about $9.5 billion from the state starting in October to help offset rising inflation.

The Franchise Tax Board has set up a web page with some of the details and a calculator where people can estimate their payment.

The Legislature passed an election-year bill, AB192, authorizing the payments with zero votes against it, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it Thursday as part of his budget package.

The bill called these payments Better for Families Refunds, but the tax board is calling them Middle Class Tax Refunds, even though couples making up to $500,000 in 2020 adjusted gross income and individuals making up to $250,000 are eligible.

The name is appropriate because “almost all of it will go to people in the middle class, just by sheer numbers,” said the bill’s co-author, Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco.

Here are some questions and answers about the refunds and how they compare to the Golden State Stimulus payments the state authorized last year.

To get a refund, you must have filed a 2020 California tax return by Oct. 15, 2021 (or by Feb. 15, 2022, if you applied for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number and had not received it by Oct. 15, 2021).

Also, you must:

• Meet the income requirements.

• Have been a California resident for at least six months in 2020.

• Be a California resident on the date the payment is issued.

• Have not been eligible to be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s 2020 tax return.

How much is the refund?

The refund amount will be based on the adjusted gross income reported on your 2020 California tax return. It can be found on line 17 of your 2020 Form 540 or Line 16 of Form 540 2EZ.

The refund will be one amount if you had no dependents with an extra, flat payment if you claimed a tax credit for one or more dependents. (The extra payment is not per dependent.)

For single filers, the refund will be:

• Income of $75,000 or less: $700 with a dependent/$350 without

• Income of $75,001 to $125,000: $500 with a dependent/$250 without

• Income of $125,001 to $250,000: $400 with a dependent/$200 without

For married couples filing jointly, the refund will be:

• Income of $150,000 or less: $1,050 with a dependent/$700 without

• Income of $150,001 to $250,000: $750 with a dependent/$500 without

• Income of $250,001 to $500,000: $600 with a dependent/$400 without

For those filing as head of household or surviving spouse, the income brackets are the same as for married couples, but the refunds will be: $700/$350 for the lowest bracket, $500/$250 for the middle bracket and $400/$200 for the highest bracket.

When will payments go out?

The Franchise Tax Board expects to begin sending them out between the end of October and middle of January.

How will I receive my payment?

If the FTB has your banking information, usually because you had a regular tax refund deposited into a bank account, you will get a direct deposit into that account. If the FTB doesn’t have your banking information, you will receive a debit card.

Will undocumented immigrants qualify for a payment if they filed a 2020 tax return and meet other requirements?

“Our understanding is that they would,” H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, said via email.

Are the tax refunds taxable?

The bill does exempt the payments from state income tax. However, “it is up to the IRS ... to determine whether the tax refunds are taxable” on federal returns, Palmer said.

The purpose of the payments is to provide “financial relief for Californians who may have been adversely impacted” by the “increased costs for goods, including gas, due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, the effects of the COVID-19 emergency, and other economic pressures.”

In the past, the IRS has issued several revenue rulings stating that “payments made under legislatively provided social benefit programs for the promotion of the general welfare are not includable in gross income,” Mark Luscombe, a principal analyst with Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, said via email.

Based on statements in the California bill — that the payments are not refunds of state income taxes and their intended purpose — and the fact that the refund goes down as income goes up, “the legislation has probably been sufficiently crafted to meet the IRS requirements to be nontaxable for federal tax purposes,” Luscombe said via email.

Can dependent children who work part time and file a tax return get one?

No, not if the child was a tax dependent.

Can I get a payment if I did not file a tax return?

No, and that means many low-income people won’t get them.

Many Californians are not required to file tax returns, usually because their income is below the threshold required for filing. However, many of these people file a tax return anyway, usually to recoup taxes withheld from their paycheck or to claim refundable tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit. If you qualify for a refundable tax credit that is larger than the tax you owe, the government will send you a check for the difference if you file a tax return.

Palmer noted that in 2020, “there were an additional 500,000 low-income tax returns filed in California, presumably to qualify for a Golden State Stimulus payment or perhaps even a federal relief payment.”

Sara Kimberlin, a senior policy analyst with the California Budget & Policy Center, said the refunds are part of a larger budget package that contains things “designed to provide support to people who didn’t have to file taxes.”

For example, it will increase monthly grants to low-income families with children enrolled in CalWORKS by 21% for the next two years. It will increase State Supplementary Payments for low-income seniors and people with disabilities by $39 per month for single adults and about $100 per month for couples starting January 2023. And families will no longer need to have earned income to qualify for the state’s Young Child Tax Credit, which is worth $1,000 for a low-income family with a child younger than 6, Kimberlin said.

How do these new tax refunds compare with the Golden State Stimulus payments?

Both required people to file a 2020 tax return, but “the target populations are very different,” Palmer said.

Last year’s payments went to people who had $75,000 or less in adjusted gross income, including those who filed their tax return with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. Some undocumented immigrants file with an ITIN and did not qualify for the federal stimulus payments.

The new program “is geared for all but very high-income Americans,” Palmer said.

He noted that through early May, about 11.5 million 2020 tax returns had received Golden State stimulus payments totaling $8.9 billion.

The new payments are expected to go to 17.5 million tax filers and total $9.5 billion.

Also, last year’s payments went by direct deposit or check; this year’s will go by direct deposit or debit cards via a third-party vendor who can send them “in about the same time frame” as direct deposits.

Kathleen Pender is a freelance writer and former columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Twitter: @KathPender