What was the actual amount of the second round COVID-19 stimulus checks?

1. What people claimed — concise extraction of the competing assertions that circulated

Multiple analyses and reports extracted from the dataset converged on the same central numeric claim: the second stimulus payment was $600 per adult and $600 per child, often phrased as “up to $600” for eligible filers, and frequently tied to income phaseouts beginning at $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers. One source in the set states simply that the second stimulus was $600 and references December 2020 timing ^{[4] [5]}. Another summary pairs the $600 figure for adults with identical $600 payments for qualifying dependents and reiterates the phaseout thresholds and mechanics found in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 ^{[1] [2]}. Government guidance and oversight summaries described the same mechanics without introducing a different dollar amount ^{[6] [7]}.

2. Where the authoritative numbers come from and how they match the reporting

The payment amounts reported in contemporary news summaries align with the statutory language in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and IRS explanations: $600 per eligible person, plus $600 per dependent, subject to phaseouts and reduced by $5 per $100 above the thresholds. Oversight and reporting pieces published in 2020–2025 reiterate that legal framework and its application to taxpayers, noting the $75,000/$150,000 income cutoffs and other mechanics used to compute actual payments ^{[2] [8]}. The IRS Q&A and Economic Impact Payment pages referenced in the dataset describe how eligible recipients received or could claim missing amounts as a Recovery Rebate Credit, confirming the $600 headline figure without introducing a competing amount ^{[6] [7]}.

3. Why “up to” matters: phaseouts, filing status, and dependents explained

The frequent qualifier “up to $600” matters because many recipients received less or nothing once phaseouts applied. Reporting clarifies the phaseout rate—$5 reduction per $100 above AGI thresholds—and the filing-status-specific thresholds: $75,000 for single filers, $112,500 for heads of household, and $150,000 for joint filers. Sources in the collection that detail the phaseout mechanics show why two taxpayers with different incomes could see materially different payments despite the same headline amount ^{[2] [1]}. The practical result recorded in oversight and explanatory pieces is that the headline amount describes the maximum payment, while actual disbursements depended on taxpayer-specific AGI values and dependent claims ^{[3] [8]}.

4. Where confusion and misreporting showed up in the coverage and why

Several pieces in the dataset reflect small divergences in framing or publication timing that seeded confusion: summary articles sometimes anchored on political debate about larger proposed amounts (e.g., calls for $2,000) while others focused strictly on the enacted $600 figure and its statutory text ^{[5] [4]}. Some summaries omitted the dependent-payment detail or the phaseout mechanics, producing headlines that underexplained how the payments were calculated ^{[6] [7]}. The dataset shows that most differences are not contradictions about the core number—$600—but rather differences in whether articles included child payments, income phaseouts, or practical claim remedies like the Recovery Rebate Credit ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Cross-checking dates, publishers, and the policy record to confirm the timeline

The policy action creating the second payment was enacted in December 2020 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021; contemporary reporting from that period and later explainers and oversight pieces published through 2025 consistently reproduce the $600-per-person figure and the dependent payment detail ^{[2] [8]}. The dataset includes later articles and how-to pieces that reference the IRS guidance and Recovery Rebate Credit processes without altering the reported amounts; those later pieces reiterate the same statutory mechanics and often appear during renewed public debate about additional or retroactive payments ^{[1] [3]}. The reporting cadence explains why some later headlines invoke higher proposed amounts by others while factual summaries continue to cite the $600 law and IRS guidance.

6. Bottom line for readers seeking a definitive answer and practical next steps

The definitive, legally enacted amount for the second Economic Impact Payment was up to $600 for each eligible adult and $600 for each qualifying dependent child, with income phaseouts beginning at $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers; missing or reduced payments could be claimed via the Recovery Rebate Credit per IRS guidance ^{[2] [6]}. Readers should treat the $600 figure as the maximum statutory payment and consult IRS materials or their tax returns for case-specific computations and any Recovery Rebate Credit claims, since the dataset shows the headline figure is accurate but the realized payments depended on individual filing circumstances ^{[1] [8]}.