HEROES Act stimulus payment estimator
Estimate the one-time household payment described in the House-passed 2020 HEROES Act proposal, including the income phaseout and the $6,000 household cap.
Household inputs
Estimated payment
This is a historical estimate of a proposed benefit, not a current IRS payment or tax determination.
Payment breakdown
| Component | Units | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taxpayer base amount | 1 | $1,200.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Dependent amount | 2 | $1,200.00 | $2,400.00 |
| Household cap adjustment | – | – | $0.00 |
| Income phaseout reduction | – | 5.00% | -$250.00 |
| Estimated payment | – | – | $3,350.00 |
How to use the HEROES Act stimulus payment estimator
What this calculator does. This tool reconstructs the direct-payment formula described in the House-passed 2020 HEROES Act proposal. It estimates a one-time household amount from filing status, number of dependents, and adjusted gross income (AGI). It applies a $1,200 adult amount, a $1,200 amount for each dependent, a $6,000 household cap, and a 5% income phaseout above the applicable threshold. It does not determine present-day eligibility, confirm whether anyone actually received a payment, prepare a tax return, or replace IRS guidance. The proposal was historical and did not become the enacted second Economic Impact Payment.
When to use it. Use the estimator to study how the 2020 proposal would have treated different household sizes, compare filing statuses, see how the 5% phaseout affects higher AGI, or reproduce an old policy example for research, teaching, budgeting history, or journalism.
How to calculate. The calculator opens with a complete demonstration: single filing status, two dependents, and $80,000 AGI. The results and a validated example XLSX workbook are available immediately.
- Select Filing status to set the adult base amount and the full-payment AGI threshold.
- Enter How many dependents? as a whole number, then enter Your income (AGI) in U.S. dollars.
- Read You could receive, the four supporting result cards, and the payment breakdown table. Results update as you type.
- Choose Download Excel to create a current-state workbook. Reset clears the demonstration and all calculated content; the Excel action stays disabled until a complete valid state is entered again.
Input guide. Filing status is required and accepts Single or married filing separately, Head of household, or Married filing jointly. It changes the full-payment threshold to $75,000, $112,500, or $150,000, respectively, and joint filing also doubles the adult base payment to $2,400. A common mistake is choosing the household arrangement rather than the tax filing status used for AGI. How many dependents? is required, accepts integers from 0 through 99, and uses 2 in the startup example. Each additional dependent adds $1,200 before the $6,000 cap, so additional dependents may stop increasing the result once that cap is reached. Decimals, negative counts, and scientific notation are rejected. Your income (AGI) is required and accepts nonnegative U.S. dollar values up to $1 trillion, with an optional dollar sign, standard comma grouping, and up to two decimal places. The example is $80,000. Higher AGI has no effect until it exceeds the filing-status threshold; above the threshold, the estimate falls by five cents for each extra dollar of AGI. Do not substitute gross salary automatically: AGI is a tax-return measure. The IRS explains AGI and historical Economic Impact Payment income limits in its 2020 Economic Impact Payment guidance.
Output guide. You could receive is the final estimated one-time payment in dollars after the cap and phaseout. A zero result means the calculated reduction fully consumes the capped payment. Full payment before phaseout is the adult-plus-dependent amount after the $6,000 cap but before AGI reduction. Income phaseout reduction equals 5% of AGI above the threshold, limited so it cannot reduce the payment below zero. Full-payment AGI threshold is the filing-status level below which AGI does not reduce the proposed payment. Estimated zero-payment AGI is the threshold plus twenty times the capped full payment, because a 5% phaseout removes one dollar of payment for each $20 of excess AGI. The table's Component, Units, Rate, and Amount columns show the adult amount, dependent amount, any cap adjustment, phaseout, and final estimate. These are mathematical estimates under the stated proposal, not recommendations or current entitlements.
Worked example. For a single filer with two dependents and $80,000 AGI, the uncapped household amount is $1,200 + (2 × $1,200) = $3,600. The single-filer full-payment threshold is $75,000, so excess AGI is $5,000. The phaseout is 5% × $5,000 = $250. The displayed estimate is therefore $3,600 – $250 = $3,350.00. The zero-payment AGI is $75,000 + ($3,600 ÷ 0.05) = $147,000.00.
Learn more. The original legislative text is available as H.R. 6800, the HEROES Act. For historical context, the IRS records that the first enacted payment used a $5-per-$100 phaseout above the same filing-status thresholds, and its Economic Impact Payments overview explains that all three enacted rounds have already been issued.
Formula, assumptions, and interpretation
Estimated payment = max(0, min($6,000, adult base + $1,200 × dependents) – 5% × max(0, AGI – filing threshold))
The adult base is $1,200 for single, married-filing-separately, and head-of-household filers, and $2,400 for married couples filing jointly. The model treats every entered dependent as eligible for the proposed $1,200 dependent amount and applies the cap before the AGI phaseout. The House proposal broadened dependent coverage compared with the first enacted payment, but eligibility also depended on conditions not represented in this three-input estimate, such as taxpayer status and identification requirements.
This calculator is intentionally labeled as historical. The enacted second-round payment signed in December 2020 used different amounts – generally $600 per eligible adult and qualifying child. The Taxpayer Advocate Service summary of the enacted second round is useful for distinguishing the law that passed from the earlier HEROES Act proposal.
- A higher dependent count increases the full amount only until the $6,000 cap is reached.
- AGI at or below the threshold produces no phaseout reduction.
- Once the phaseout equals the full capped amount, the estimate remains $0.
- The estimate is sensitive to filing status because both the base payment and the AGI threshold can change.