Estimate the second stimulus payment your household would have received under the HEROES Act proposal. Enter your filing status, adjusted gross income (AGI), and number of dependents. The calculator applies $1,200 per adult and $1,200 per dependent (up to three), then reduces the total by 5% of any income above your filing-status threshold.
The Second Stimulus Check Calculator (HEROES Act) estimates the direct cash payment a household would have received under the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act — the sweeping relief bill known as the HEROES Act that the U.S. House of Representatives passed in May 2020. Enter three simple pieces of information — your filing status, your adjusted gross income (AGI), and the number of dependents in your household — and the calculator works out the payment, including the income-based phase-out that reduces larger incomes. It is a fast way to see how the proposal would have treated your specific situation.
The HEROES Act was one of several competing plans for a second round of stimulus payments following the CARES Act. Although this particular version was not enacted in the form the House passed, it remains a useful benchmark for understanding how these relief payments are structured, and this calculator reproduces its rules exactly so you can explore the numbers for any household.
The HEROES Act (H.R. 6800) was a roughly $3 trillion relief package introduced in the House of Representatives in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic's economic disruption. Among its many provisions — funding for state and local governments, extended unemployment benefits, hazard pay for essential workers, and more — it proposed a second round of direct economic impact payments to households, following the first payments delivered under the CARES Act.
The direct-payment portion of the HEROES Act was notably more generous toward families than the CARES Act had been. Where the CARES Act gave only $500 per qualifying child under 17, the HEROES Act proposed a full $1,200 per dependent — the same amount as an adult — and it counted dependents of any age, not just young children. It did, however, cap the number of dependents that could be counted at three, and it set an overall household maximum of $6,000.
The calculation has two stages: first the household's base payment is added up, and then that amount is phased out for higher incomes.
Every eligible adult in the household is worth $1,200. A single filer or head of household counts as one adult ($1,200), while a married couple filing jointly counts as two adults ($2,400). On top of that, each dependent adds another $1,200, up to a maximum of three dependents ($3,600). The whole household payment is capped at $6,000. In formula form:
base payment = (adults × $1,200) + (dependents × $1,200), capped at $6,000
For example, a married couple with two dependents has a base payment of $2,400 + $2,400 = $4,800. A single parent (head of household) with one dependent has $1,200 + $1,200 = $2,400.
The full base payment goes to households whose AGI is at or below the threshold for their filing status. Above that threshold, the payment is reduced by 5 cents for every dollar of income over the limit — that is, 5% of the excess AGI. The thresholds are:
The complete formula the calculator uses is:
payment = base payment − 0.05 × (AGI − threshold), never below $0
Because the reduction is a straight 5% of the amount over the threshold, the payment falls steadily to zero once your income is high enough. The higher your base payment, the higher the income at which it finally disappears.
Suppose you file as single, your adjusted gross income is $85,000, and you have one dependent. The calculation runs like this:
So this household would receive $1,900. That is the default example loaded into the calculator, so you can press Calculate to see it worked out, then change any input to explore your own situation. Raise the income and the payment shrinks; add a dependent and it grows.
Because the payment falls by 5% of the income above the threshold, you can work out exactly where it disappears. Divide the base payment by 0.05 (which is the same as multiplying by 20) and add the threshold. For a single filer with no dependents, the $1,200 base vanishes at $75,000 + ($1,200 ÷ 0.05) = $75,000 + $24,000 = $99,000. For a married couple with no dependents, the $2,400 base runs out at $150,000 + $48,000 = $198,000. Each dependent adds $1,200 to the base, which extends the cutoff by another $24,000 of income. A married couple with three dependents (the maximum $6,000 base) would keep receiving something up to $150,000 + $120,000 = $270,000 of AGI.
Adjusted gross income is the figure the tax system uses to measure your income for purposes like this one. It is your total gross income — wages, salaries, self-employment income, interest, dividends, capital gains, and so on — minus certain "above-the-line" adjustments such as contributions to a traditional IRA, student loan interest, and self-employment tax deductions. AGI is not the same as your take-home pay or your taxable income; it appears on a specific line of your federal tax return. Stimulus payments and many other benefits are keyed to AGI because it is a standardized, verifiable measure of a household's income. When using this calculator, enter the AGI from the tax year the payment would be based on, which for the 2020 proposals was generally your most recently filed return.
One of the biggest differences between the HEROES Act and the earlier CARES Act was its treatment of dependents. The CARES Act paid $500 per qualifying child, and only for children under the age of 17 — leaving out college students, adult dependents, and elderly relatives claimed on a return. The HEROES Act would have paid the full $1,200 for each dependent regardless of age, so a household could receive payments for teenagers over 16, college-age dependents, and adult dependents alike. The trade-off was a cap: only the first three dependents counted toward the payment. This calculator enforces that cap automatically — if you enter more than three dependents, only three are used in the calculation, and a note reminds you of the limit.
It helps to see how the HEROES Act proposal compared with the CARES Act payments that actually went out in the spring of 2020. Both used the same $1,200 adult amount, the same income thresholds, and the same 5% phase-out. The differences were all about dependents:
For a family with young children, the HEROES version was substantially more generous — a couple with two kids would get $4,800 instead of $2,900 under the CARES rules. The later December 2020 stimulus and the 2021 American Rescue Plan borrowed elements from both approaches.
It is important to understand that the HEROES Act, as passed by the House in May 2020, did not become law in that form. The Senate did not take it up, and the second round of stimulus payments that Americans eventually received in late December 2020 came from a different, smaller relief package that provided $600 per adult and $600 per dependent. This calculator models the HEROES Act proposal specifically, so its results reflect what that bill would have paid, not what was ultimately distributed. It remains a valuable tool for understanding the structure of relief payments and for historical or educational comparison.
To give a sense of how the HEROES Act formula plays out, here are several representative households, each assumed to have income at or below its threshold so the full base payment applies:
Now add income above the threshold and each of these figures starts to shrink by 5 cents on every extra dollar. A married couple with two children and an AGI of $170,000, for instance, is $20,000 over the $150,000 threshold, so their $4,800 base is reduced by 5% of $20,000, or $1,000, leaving $3,800. The calculator handles this arithmetic instantly for any combination of status, income, and dependents you enter, so you can compare scenarios side by side.
The HEROES Act sits in the middle of a fast-moving sequence of relief measures. The first round of economic impact payments came with the CARES Act in March 2020: $1,200 per adult and $500 per child under 17. The HEROES Act followed in May 2020 as the House's ambitious proposal for a second round, expanding the dependent payment to $1,200 for dependents of any age (capped at three). When negotiations stalled, a smaller compromise passed in December 2020, delivering $600 per adult and $600 per dependent. Finally, the American Rescue Plan of March 2021 provided a third payment of $1,400 per person, including all dependents. Seen in that context, the HEROES Act represents the most family-generous of the direct-payment proposals for the second round, which is why it is still worth modeling even though it was never enacted in that exact form.
The proposal provided $1,200 per adult and $1,200 per dependent (up to three dependents), for a maximum of $6,000 per household, before any income phase-out. A single adult with no dependents would receive up to $1,200; a married couple with three dependents, up to $6,000.
The payment phases out at 5% of AGI above $75,000 (single), $112,500 (head of household), or $150,000 (married filing jointly). A single filer with no dependents received nothing above $99,000 AGI; a childless married couple, nothing above $198,000.
Subtract your threshold from your AGI, multiply the difference by 5% (0.05), and subtract that amount from your base payment. If the result is negative, the payment is zero.
Yes. Unlike the CARES Act, which counted only children under 17, the HEROES Act would have paid $1,200 for each dependent of any age, including college students and adult dependents, up to a limit of three dependents.
No. The bill passed the House but was not enacted in that form. The second stimulus payment Americans actually received (December 2020) was $600 per adult and $600 per dependent under a different law. This calculator models the HEROES Act proposal itself.
Enter your adjusted gross income (AGI), which appears on your federal tax return. It is your total income minus specific adjustments, and it is not the same as gross salary or take-home pay.
This Second Stimulus Check Calculator (HEROES Act) is provided for educational and general informational purposes only. It models the direct-payment provisions of the HEROES Act proposal (H.R. 6800, 2020), which was not enacted in that form. It does not constitute tax or financial advice, and it does not reflect any payment actually distributed by the government. Consult the IRS or a qualified tax professional for guidance on your specific situation.