On February 23rd, Governor Newsom of California officially signed the ‘Golden State Stimulus’ package into law for his state. The package is supposed to provide struggling California residents with direct monetary relief in the form of stimulus payments.
All California citizens that make less than $30,000 and claim the Earned Income Tax Credit on their 2020 California State Tax return could be eligible for a $600 check from the State of California. ITIN Taxpayers within the State of California could be eligible for twice as much under certain circumstances that are outlined on the Governor’s website.
Governor Newsom is currently fighting a significant recall effort and many political experts believe that the ‘Golden State Stimulus’ was a convenient way to improve support after a significant drop in his approval ratings. There’s only one major concern right now, virtually nobody has actually received their California stimulus checks even though the Franchise Tax Board claims that these payments would start in March.
As the end of the month comes closer, California residents with low-incomes are starting to wonder if their stimulus check will ever arrive. The Franchise Tax Board website provides an in-depth collection of information about stimulus eligibility, but only estimated arrival times are provided. In many cases, these arrival times have passed for individuals that filed their state tax returns already.
A significant wave of federal stimulus checks have already been sent out as a part of the ‘American Rescue Plan’ legislation that was recently signed into law. A second wave of paper checks are now being sent out through the mail system as well. The California rescue package for its residents seems to be struggling to match the same pace.
As of now, there’s really no update as to when the ‘Golden State Stimulus’ checks will arrive to eligible recipients, although the Franchise Tax Board website indicates that taxpayers could expect to receive their payments within 60 days of filing their state tax return.
The California ‘Golden State Stimulus’ package also includes ‘immediate’ relief for small businesses according to the legislation’s language, although many business owners are growing impatient as the economic relief doesn’t seem to be arriving as quickly as described.
Additional financial assistance for college students, child care, and families is also included within the legislation and will be deployed over the next several months. Stimulus check payments within this California legislation will remain available until November 15th, which happens to be exactly one month after the tax deadline.
If you filed your California tax return at the beginning of March, you could generally expect to receive your payment by the middle of April. It’s currently unclear if the Franchise Tax Board is on pace to meet their commitments of deploying payments within 45 to 60 days. No recent updates have been provided directly from the FTB as California citizens continue to check their bank accounts and wait.
If you have not yet filed your California state tax return, it’s probably a good idea to file your return as soon as possible so that you can claim your ‘Golden State Stimulus’ payment as soon as possible. For full stimulus eligibility, please refer to this page on the FTB website.