Document type sign claim missouri mobile
good evening welcome to moneymondays a four-part series on legal rights and options during kovat 19 my name is Latasha burns and I'm an attorney at legal services of Eastern Missouri at legal services we are a voice for justice we provide free legal services to improve lives promote fairness and create opportunities for those across 21 counties in Missouri we believe that County partnerships and cross collaboration are essential to providing quality legal services we are proud to partner with the st. Louis regional financial empowerment coalition and MoneySmart month to bring you reliable information regarding this pandemic good evening thanks for joining our virtual money Monday series co-sponsored by MoneySmart month my name is Lisa Potts and I am representing the st. Louis regional financial empowerment Coalition who are we we are a coalition of a diverse group of community stakeholders who are dedicated to increasing family self-sufficiency and prosperity through financial education and asset building our mission is to promote equitable opportunities for financial health to build wealth and economic prosperity we were formerly known as the st. Louis region our main task force and we merged with the United Way's financial empowerment coalition how do we accomplish our work one of the ways we accomplish our mission is through MoneySmart month we started off by welcoming you to that series this is April normally Financial Literacy Month it is a public awareness campaign designed to help consumers better manage their personal finances this is achieved through the collaboration and coordinated efforts of hundreds of organizations across the metro area including businesses financial institutions schools libraries not-for-profits etc MoneySmart month started in 2012 as Money Smart Week we were holding over 200 plus classes in a week's time and we eventually decided to move our platform to a month surface to date we have served more than 24,000 people with nearly 1400 of events due to kovat 19 MoneySmart month has been reimagined and we're now bringing it to you via Facebook live as a community in nation we are experiencing an unprecedented time of health and economic crises legal services hopes to dispel myths and correct misinformation about resources designed to help you meet your needs we hope you had an opportunity to view last week's discussion about changes to the full step rules and a recording of that presentation is saved on our Facebook page for your convenience today we will focus on the economic impact or stimulus payment authorized under the cares Act this payment is open to most citizens we will then discuss the Missouri property tax credit or circuit breaker and ways to increase income for seniors and persons with disabilities throughout the presentation we will provide community resources to people who do not have a bank account these resources will help you access your payments faster lastly we extend our warmest thanks to the legal services staff members in our community partners who will help us address your comments and questions in the chat section miss Potts and I will try to answer live questions at the end of the presentation if time permits but please note that we will not be able to see your questions and comments while we are speaking let's jump right into our discussion about the stimulus payment with Miss Lisa Cutts awesome people are wondering how much money are we going to get back the amount of money you will give back is actually based on your adjusted gross income or AGI what exactly is an AGI your adjusted gross income is your gross income minus eligible adjustments so that your gross income includes your wages business income retirement distributions as well as other income you're eligible adjustments may include things like your education expenses student loan interests contributions to a retirement account etc you can find your adjusted gross income on line 8b of the 2019 1040 for next slide please so this chart basically shows you how much an individual will receive as well as people fight married filing jointly so if you're an individual you can receive up to $1,200 if you're married filing jointly 2,400 now of course there's income stipulations to that if you're single you cannot make any more than $75,000 so on that line eight of their previous form if that is not over $7,500 you will be eligible and you will receive your $1,200 for if you're married filing jointly that line would be no more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars now everybody is not eligible if you have children you cannot make more than one hundred if you're if you make more than $100,000 you're ineligible period if you're married without kids you cannot make over $200,000 that makes you ineligible if you're a head of household single that's up to twelve hundred and twelve thousand dollars and if you are married filing jointly that's you can make no more than two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars again refer to line eight of your 1040 tax return you in addition to the twelve hundred and twenty-four hundred dollar payments eligible tax filers will receive $500 per qualifying child under the age of 17 each child claim must qualify as a tax dependent and be a u.s. citizen u.s. national or eligible resident alien your child must meet the relationship rules and live with you for more than half a year please note that your child may work or receive an income but they cannot provide more than half of their own support there are no limits on the number of children eligible eligible to receive a stimulus payment under this bill a common question we receive is whether tax filers will be able to receive a stimulus check for any adult dependents in their household unfortunately under the current rules tax filers cannot get an additional stimulus payment for adult dependents now this may include young adults claimed by their parents or family members caring for relatives that cannot work themselves adults that have been claimed as a dependent during the 2019 tax year are likely ineligible for a stimulus payment at this time now that we have a clearer picture of who qualifies for this benefit I think we should clarify information information suggesting that the stimulus payment will be treated as taxable income or used to hurt your participation in public benefits programs current Dittus indicates that this payment will not be subject to income tax also it should not immediately be treated as income or a resource under most federally funded programs this includes section 8 SSI or other income based programs like Snap these payments should not count because they are a form of disaster and emergency relief payment under the Stafford Act again I would like to reiterate and clarify that the stimulus payment is not designed to hurt you it should not impact your taxable income or disqualify you from public benefits programs that you may need to survive if you have questions about your continued eligibility for public benefits programs please contact legal services of Eastern Missouri for an additional advice now many of you may be wondering how are you going to receive your stimulus check the IRS will automatically calculate and sister Melissa payments to most eligible households using their 2019 or their 2018 text filings the IRS will also send automatic payments for certain persons who receive Social Security or railroad benefits and receive a form ninety nine from the federal government the income reported on your form 1099 is the income the IRS will use to determine your eligibility it is very important that you know that not everyone who receives Social Security payments will automatically receive a stimulus check the current IRS rules limit automatic payments to people who receive Social Security disability insurance Social Security retirement or Social Security survivor benefits in prior years if you are unsure about which Social Security benefit you receive right now you can visit the Social Security Administration's website online at ssa.gov and look up your account because the IRS is relying on tax information from last year or possibly 2018 many people worry that their stimulus payment will not accurately reflect their current circumstances Social Security beneficiaries who have children and did not file a tax return during 2018 or 2019 will not automatically receive money for their eligible children if you recently experienced a decrease in income or an increase in house size maybe you had a new baby congratulations the automatic payment will not be the full amount you are currently entitled to if you have not filed or 2019 Texas you can try to file as soon as possible to provide the most updated information to the IRS otherwise you can receive the remaining balance of the full stimulus payment you are entitled to when you file your 2020 Texas next year based on the information currently available tax filers will not be penalized if they receive higher payments than their current circumstances dictate for example if you made less money and 2019 and receive a stimulus payment based on that income current information does not suggest that you will be penalized for this or if you had a foster child in your home during 2019 and that foster child is no longer with you at this current time you will not be penalized if you received an additional $500 we recognize that many of you may have several questions about the stimulus payment staff and volunteers will continue monitoring the chat box for miss Kahn tonight and we will try to address your questions and comments as soon as we can now for most people as I've stated they will automatically receive a stimulus payment but any people are not going to receive one automatically if you didn't file taxes in 2018 or 2019 if you receive Supplemental Security income which is a type of Social Security benefit or if you recently became eligible for other Social Security benefits you will not receive an automatic stimulus payment many eligible households will not automatically get a payment you must take action to claim your stimulus payment if you are one of these individuals contrary to current rumors there is nothing in the official guidance that says you'll receive a stimulus payment if you complete the 2020 census I've seen this floating around social media I think I've even had it forwarded to me about three or four times now this information is incorrect and will delay financial resources for people who truly need the additional income again if you did not file taxes in 2018 or 2019 if you receive SSI or if you started getting Social Security benefits just this year you are strongly encouraged to file a tax return as soon as possible to claim your stimulus payment if you receive Social Security benefits but are unsure which program you are enrolled in please contact the Social Security Administration online or by phone for accurate information the contact information will be added to the chat section for your convenience that's great thanks Latasha I had not heard of the rumor about if you found your uh filled out your stimulus I filled out your census form that it made you automatically get your stimulus that's a good one um so I just want to point out that we know that social distancing and sheltering in place mandates is good it may be proposed some challenges this year to filing we used to some people used to go into the free tax prep site given the fact that we can't you know be in places more than more than ten people to a time we know that that's going to be difficult but there are still resources available to help you get your taxes done your regular income tax preparers or healed here to assist so if you're used to filing with H&R Block TurboTax Tax Act free check us a Jackson Hewitt etc they have specifically designed a a website that will allow you to file your taxes for free but you have to use these free portals that we have listed here on this presentation so for the state you're going to go to the Diego r dot mo dot gov again it's here and all you have to do is click it it'll take you there as well as on the federal level you're going to go to irs.gov slash free file again normally you would be paying for these services but because of the pandemic people are offering these services for free but you have to go through them through these websites that we have provided and then find the tax preparer that you're accustomed to working with you could also still call United Way 2-1-1 for tax help next slide please thank you so the most important question that I know everybody wants to know when will you get your money so we those those dates and times are changing daily we've done tons of research we're on countless webinars and we're trying to get constant you know up-to-date information for you what we do know is that most Americans should receive their stimulus checks via direct deposit by mid May that's the general the more specific I can be the latest date I heard was April 8th and I heard that on a webinar the other day that April 8th which is actually only a couple of days away that people should start getting their stimulus checks direct deposit when we talked earlier about adjusted gross income I do want to say that this is actually some good news people in the lowest AGI income bracket will receive priority meaning if you're in on a lower economic spectrum those checks are supposed to be mailed out first which i think is a good thing but again don't hold us to this this is the latest information that we've received but everybody is supposed to have their check five mid-may let's keep our fingers crossed that some people start getting their money in a couple of days now what if you do not have direct deposit how are you going to get your money well if you do not have direct deposit you will get a paper check those are going to be mailed April through September to the last known address on file now is there anything that you can do in between time can you get an account before then and into and get in the pipeline to get your check before that paper check you absolutely can there has been some national advocacy going on on the national level and the IRS has teamed up with tax and they have created a web-based portal for people to provide their banking information there is a stimulus registration webpage where you can submit your current direct deposit information or update your mailing address to receive your stimulus pavement this product is free when you receive this webinar after the presentation you'll be able to click right on their stimulus registration and it will take you directly to that page I did try it it looked pretty simple but obviously I didn't want to go that far because they wanted me to file my taxes and that's not what I was trying to do but it does work this is a huge opportunity for us our coalition and our community to help the thousands of residents in our community that we know do not currently have bank accounts one of the reasons we started that doing this work back in 20 2010 was that st. Louis was known for having the highest number of unbanked african-americans in the country we have been working for the past 10 years to get residents bank and while we have done it I think a tremendous job of banking over you know thirty thousand individuals there's still a lot of people who do not have bank accounts and this is a great time to motivate and organize our community to get those accounts do you really want to wait until September to get your stimulus check even if you have to wait to get your check in the mail are you gonna stop the mailman every day when you get it where you gonna go to cash it how much is it gonna cost you do you have gloves do you have masks to go outside if we're still under quarantine how long will you wait in line the simple solution would be to get banked now which is up on the screen again once you have an account you can enter this registration webpage click on their portal and submit your banking information what you see at the bottom of the screen is our money smart stl you can go there and we will also give you additional information on how you can find our financial partners our money smart st. Louis website is money smart st. Loui
STL o urs dot o-r-g it's safe and easy and it saves you money I want to just briefly talk about some of our bank accounts that you can access online these accounts are safe affordable functional and these accounts are really good for people who have never had a bank account before because they don't have overdraft fee's and what does that mean it means it's a checklist account it means it is structurally impossible for you to overdraft and let's be honest we've all overdraft on accounts before me included if you already don't have any money you certainly don't have an extra 35 dollars to pay the bank because you actually you accidentally overdrew your account so this is a great account for people who have never for a first-time account because it really is easy and it's convenient you have free mobile banking free deposits free withdrawals and free bill payments and it's less than five dollars a month so the next slide I'm going to give you the tell you about the six banks that actually have these accounts that don't have the overdraft fee's so Bank of America the name of their account is safe balanced banking Carrollton Bank basic banking accounts CIBC is the easy-peasy path access account and as you'll see on your screen those links or hyperlinked you can actually click on those links and it will take you to those websites the next three banks is first Bank their account is called thrive checking Simmons Bank affordable advantage checking and u.s. bank safe debit account and I just want to emphasize before Latasha gets back on that we don't care where you get banked we just want you to get banked you can go to any bank any credit union again giving us social distancing find a location that's good that's convenient for you call first find out what their options are some banks are still taking one-on-one appointments some banks or if they have drive-throughs you can go through the drive-thru and if you have access to online some of the bank's you can open up the accounts online but we're just trying to emphasize today is the importance of getting banked first then going to that stimulus portal so that you can put your information in so that you can get your check as soon as possible and I have to wait for paper check in the mail thank you miss pies in addition to federal tax benefits there are some state credits or one in particular that can help you get additional income sooner rather than later so we're now going to focus our conversation on the Missouri property tax circuit breaker if you have additional questions and comments about the stimulus payment and our staffing community partners will continue working to address your concerns as a reminder miss Potts and I are unable to see your comments and questions in the chat while presenting you the maximum amount a renter can receive is 750 dollars and the maximum amount a homeowner can receive back is $1,100 the amount of the credit is based on the total household income and the amount of rent or real estate taxes that were paid do not worry if this is your first time hearing about this benefit you can file up to three years in arrears so you can file 2017 2018 and 2019 if you've never filed for this credit before so who is eligible certain Missouri residents who rent or own property or eligible for this circuit breaker property tax credit if you are 65 years or older if you are 60 years or older with Social Security survivor benefits if you are 100% disabled veteran because of your military service you are eligible and if you receive Social Security disability benefits anybody between the ages of 18 to 64 you are eligible for this program are their income limits of course they are so if you are single you can't make more than twenty seven thousand five hundred dollars if you are married you can't make more than twenty nine thousand five hundred dollars if you are a single homeowner you can't make more than thirty thousand dollars and you had woman has them on your property for a full year and if you were married homeowner only your property for at least a year you cannot make more than thirty four thousand dollars so if you fit within those categories in terms of income and in terms of age you are eligible to apply and receive these rebates so please take advantage of those as a gentle note if you are a homeowner applying for the property tax circuit breaker for real estate taxes paid it is important that you owned and occupied your home during the texturing question so we talk about income in meeting income guidelines it's important to understand what types of income count for eligibility purposes unlike the stimulus payment which relies on your adjusted gross income the circuit breaker looks at your total income when determining eligibility this will include both taxable and non-taxable income it can include employment earnings rental income social security benefits unemployment benefits pension payment child support and other payments you might receive the Missouri Department of Revenue has a fairly simple flowchart that you can use to determine if you qualify for the circuit breaker it can be found at dor amo gov the link to this page will be dropped in the chat below potential applicants are encouraged to start with identifying whether their housing status actually meets the state's requirement first do you rent or own your home if you own your home did you occupy your home for the full year or for a portion of the year if you are a homeowner did you pay any real estate taxes but if you are a renter is your landlord or the facility you reside in a qualifying landlord for example if you live in a facility that does not pay property taxes you will not qualify for the circuit breaker even though you pay rent on a monthly basis then lastly you should look at whether or not you fall into one of the eligible groups whether that's by age or by disability status if you qualify for the circuit breaker congratulations your next step is to apply copies of the missouri property tax credit form can be found on the Missouri Department of Revenue website at dor mo gov there are only two versions of this form but there are three different ways you can file it the form you should use when filing your circuit breaker will depend on whether or not you are required to file a tax return or are claiming adjustments to your income as outlined on this slide the rules and income requirements regarding tax filing can vary greatly depending on your age marital status and filing status you are not expected to learn all of these rules as stated earlier the Missouri free file Alliance allows individual to use professional tax services the same software day your tax preparer might use if you went to H&R block or TurboTax you can use the exact same software go through the exact same chain of questions to help you identify eligibility help you identify whether you have to file a tax return again these services are free and they're available to you you can use them to help you figure out whether or not you have to file taxes if you are unsure after looking at this soft the different software providers if you are still unsure about whether you are required to file taxes please consult with a professional tax preparer for advice that is specific to your circumstances you can even call legal services of Eastern Missouri now when you're ready to complete your circuit breaker you've decided you're eligible you celebrate it because now you're getting extra income in the household you've pulled down your form and you're ready to fill it out you're gonna need proof of your income proof of real estate taxes paid if you're a homeowner a certification of rent paid and a separate verification from your landlord it is really important to know that the certification of rent paid and the landlord verifications look very similar they're almost identical forms but they are different and both forms are required to complete your circuit breaker the certification of rent paid is a form that you complete that indicates how much rent you paid during the tax year the verification which is a separate form that your landlord must complete is needed to support your application this is very very important I cannot overemphasize the importance of having both forms we have heard from community partners that do this paperwork all the time that many circuit breakers are being denied because the landlord verification forms are not being submitted please make sure that you include both with your circuit breaker application now as stated earlier you can file for a circuit breaker dating back three years so if you're applying for the 2019 circuit-breaker apply now if you didn't apply in 2018 apply now if you did not apply in 2017 make sure you apply now again if you are eligible for a circuit breaker but you did not file in one of the past three years please submit those claims that is an additional $1,100 for seven hundred and fifty dollars potentially for each year that you can receive as extra income to help you during our time of economic distress I'm calling my mom I think she fell she need to file now I know exactly she'd need the file down so again if you file they're going to send you what a paper check you don't want the paper check Tasha what is this form that you that's this is one of those forms that you just showed us this is the missouri ptc form the property tax credit form right so as you see on here it says what is your routing number is it a checking or savings account what is your account number you can't put that information on after you don't have a bank account so again say get bank now and then you can fill that information out you can get your money faster again if you have any questions about opening up an account you can visit our website at www.ardexamericas.com oh that's me too and what if you need help you can always call United Way to do one one you can always you can also call the st. Louis area agency on aging and that number is listed here I don't know if we have any callers on the phone so it's Facebook lab but three one four six one two five nine one eight it's the st. Louis area agency on aging Lutheran Senior Services is 3 1 4 9 6 8 9 3 1 3 and legal services of eastern Missouri neighborhood vacancy initiative with another Tasha knows this number in her sleep 3 1 4 2 5 6 8 7 7 8 excellent it looks like we have a few minutes and we can answer some of your questions so I can actually see the questions I can see some so we I know we have some partners one on the line as well so I don't know who we need to refer some of these to somebody asked are we helping with housing and we're actually gonna be talking about that in a minute I'm not questioning what type of housing you were interested in but we are having a webinar I want to say next week where we're going to be addressing some housing issues but if there's anything specific that you want it it's Tommy Johnson asked a question please give us some more details about what you were looking for so follow up on what this guy's just say that we are doing a special presentation next week next Monday we're going to talking specifically about Kovac and housing related issues we'll have resources and other important information that help during this time we touched on I got this question is for you this if you are a singer who works part-time and receives Social Security will you still get a CH based on Social Security benefits or wages so it really depends it depends on if taxes were filed and how taxes were filed it depends on what type of Social Security benefit you receive and it depends on when you receive those benefits so just as a brief recap if you receive Social Security benefits that include disability insurance retirement or survivors benefits and you were also issued a 1099 for the prior tax year the federal government will use that document to calculate your benefit level if you worked last year and you filed taxes last year and include your social security information it is likely the IRS will rely on your tax filing I'm sure if we didn't answer her question she is gone to follow up so a man to tell the one to know will those under daca get the stimulus to either themselves or their children who are citizens so my understanding is that individuals who have a Social Security number will qualify for the stimulus pavement so I think that's the important question so if there's a social security number for a text file er then they will receive a payment if there is not if you're relying on I don't I'm not as familiar with some of the immigration rules but I think there's a TI n number associated with that they are not eligible for the stimulus statements so we received another question that says do I need to file federal and state taxes does it count if I just found my state rental rebate so in order to get your economic stimulus payment which from the federal government there has to be a record with the federal government for them to use to determine your eligibility and to calculate your benefit level so in response to this question I would encourage you to file a federal tax form if you have not already done so for 2019 for 2018 we received an additional question that says is there any way at all to receive a stimulus check without filing taxes so information is changing daily the information we have right now it is not possible to receive a stimulus check without filing taxes unless you automatically qualify for that payment you qualify for an automatic payment I'm sorry or if you received one of the eligible federal benefits last year so that would be you receive Social Security disability insurance Social Security retirement or Social Security return survivors benefits or railroad retirement benefits so if you received an eligible federal benefit last year and you also got a form 1099 from the federal government you will not have to file taxes but if you are a tax filer or non text file or if you have earnings or wages the only way a stimulus check can be issued at this time based on the current IRS guidance is if you have filed taxes so it's really really important that you fill out those tax forms if you need to then make sure that you get your stimulus check so we received some questions that look kind of personal and specific in nature so it will do is will defer answering those or live and we'll follow up with you personally to address some of that so we've got another question what if one filed 2019 to Texas and had deposit on a TurboTax card will that work for the stimulus deposit Lisa are you familiar with the TurboTax car I am not familiar with the Turbo Tax card it sounds like just like a like a ATM card or so you know some type of you know how you get your money on a on a physical card it depends on if that card is reloadable and I I just don't know enough about that I apologize I don't know the answer to that but we will certainly ask the book what you filed but the thing is you filed your 20-19 taxes and that's how they paid you I don't know the answer there but we can certainly find out that's a good question yeah we'll be happy to look into that a little bit further we'd hate to speculate and give you incorrect information at this time that's a new one for me about the TurboTax card so we received another question this is if I go back child support will I still be able to receive a stimulus check and unfortunately you will not so stimulus money will be garnished if you are passed during your child support so sorry to be the bearer of bad news but unfortunately that that is one of the stipulations and again I want to point out that this stuff this information changes on a regular we will have another money Monday series next week and what we will do is give very recap of this event and or if there any additional information that we can share with you at the beginning of next week call so definitely tune in next week because again if we find out any new information about if checks is gonna come out soon or hopefully not later or any other updates we'll definitely be ready to share that information with you it looks like there was another question to asked about a past-due student loans would that affect your stimulus payments and again I think that's a qu
stion it we would have to follow up and get some answers on unless you know Latasha no I don't have an answer to that right now but would be happy to look into that for you let's see if there are any more questions I don't see any additional questions or comments at this time so I want to thank you for joining us for moneymondays please join us for one of our future sessions we're gonna be here on Facebook live every Monday through the month of April at 6:30 p.m. next Monday we're going to be discussing housing changes because of Kovac 19 this is going to include some creative eviction defenses limitations on late fees and the current moratorium on eviction orders and the city of st. Louis and the county of st. Louis on April 20th we'll connect with an attorney and business owner to discuss the new employment rules under the coronavirus Act this is going to include discussions about the small business loans what is included and how to actually do that paperwork correctly the Paycheck protection program unemployment benefits just to name a few then come back and visit us on the 27th for a presentation about wills trusts and estate planning tools designed to protect you your family and assets in case of an emergency thank you again joining us we look forward to seeing you next week bye-bye you
