As inflation relief checks have been hitting mailboxes all across New York, some are looking at the amount written on the line and thinking, “that’s it?” Depending on your filing status and income, eligible NYers are receiving anywhere from $150 to $400…but how does an extra $2,000 sound? Well, rumors have begun swirling around about a brand new stimulus check, though details are pretty vague.
What we do know is that President Donald Trump has proposed a $2,000 “tariff dividend” payment to eligible New Yorkers. Trump made an announcement on Truth Social on November 9th, stating:
People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!…A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.
At an Oval Office event on November 17th, Trump stated that under the proposal, “individuals of moderate income” would receive a one-time dividend check of $2,000, high-income earners excluded. “We’re going to issue a dividend to our middle-income people and lower-income people,” he stated.
No thresholds have been proposed though, for context, individuals earning up to $75,000 and couples up to $150,000 received were eligible for the inflation refund checks.
Trump emphasized that the payments would be made possible by tariff revenue–which would also be used to pay down part of the national debt–and would roll out sometime before the 2026 midterms. “It’ll be next year sometime,” he stated.
As of now, no formal proposal exists, and there aren’t many details surrounding what has been stated…though experts are already debunking the proposal’s validity. Tax Foundation analyst Erica York wrote on Twitter:
The President just proposed a $2,000 tariff “dividend” for each person, excluding high-income earners. If the cutoff is $100,000, 150M adults would qualify, for a cost near $300 billion. If kids qualify, that grows. Only problem, new tariffs have raised $120 billion so far.
Will we receive these tariff dividend stimulus checks? Who knows, because it’s not entirely up to Trump–any direct payments must be authorized by Congress before a president can sign them into law.
So, in the meantime, you’ll just have to make due with your inflation refund…which, by the way, may be rejected by your bank. More on this here.