Stimulus Checks: True-Up and Safe-Harbor Costs

David Splinter

National Tax Journal, 2023, vol. 76, issue 2, 349 - 366

Abstract: Stimulus checks were sent in response to recent US recessions. These checks grew from about $40 billion in the 2001 recession to $800 billion in the COVID era. Prior studies, however, ignored additional stimulus received upon filing tax returns (true-ups) and safe harbors that prevent possible stimulus repayment. Using population-level tax data, I estimate true-up and safe-harbor costs and decompose them by reasons, such as changes in income or the number of children. True-ups and safe harbors are costly. For the three rounds of COVID-era stimulus, true-ups and safe harbors cost more than $130 billion.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/724500 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/724500 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:nattax:doi:10.1086/724500

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in National Tax Journal from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().