IRS Issues Fourth Batch of $1,400 Stimulus Payments, Bringing Total to $372 Billion in Funds

More stimulus money is on the way as part of the American Rescue Plan.

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in mid-March, loaded with a wide range of relief measures. But its big claim to fame is that it authorizes a third round of stimulus checks. Those $1,400 payments have been hitting Americans' bank accounts for weeks. And the IRS has just announced that it's issued the fourth batch of payments.

More stimulus money is on the way

Hundreds of millions of Americans will receive the third stimulus check, but the IRS doesn't have the capacity to blast out all that money at once. Instead, the agency is sending the payments in batches. It announced on April 7 that it had completed its fourth batch, which included more than 25 million payments. That brings the total amount of stimulus cash already distributed to roughly $372 billion, broken down into over 156 million individual payments.

Who's getting paid this week?

The current batch of stimulus payments is worth over $36 billion. Here are some of the groups who received it:

• A large proportion of the recipients were seniors on Social Security who didn't file a tax return in 2019 or 2020 and didn't register with the IRS's non-filer tool.
• Social Security Disability Insurance recipients were also included.
• Over 3 million payments, worth nearly $5 billion, went to Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries.
• Close to 85,000 payments worth over $119 million went to Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries.
• This new batch also included "plus-up" payments for recipients who were entitled to more stimulus money than they originally received.
• Over 1 million payments worth almost $3 billion went to people who recently filed a tax return and qualified for a stimulus based on that.

When will the IRS be done sending out stimulus payments?

The bulk of the payments the agency's disbursed to date have been sent electronically via direct deposit. But some recipients aren't eligible for direct deposit because the IRS doesn't have their bank account details on file. They will receive paper checks and debit cards, which could take several more weeks to process. Those physical stimulus payments could actually linger into May, especially if the IRS starts to get busy with tax returns.

If you're expecting a stimulus and haven't yet received it, you can use the IRS's Get My Payment tool. It's updated regularly to provide as much detail about those payments as possible.

Meanwhile, if this is the first stimulus check you've received, it's worth checking why you weren't eligible under the previous two rounds. If you didn't get the first- or second-round stimulus you were entitled to, you can still claim that money ($1,800 in total). You'll need to use the Recovery Rebate Credit on your 2020 tax return.