Many find some relief in receiving up to $1,050 in state support for energy price increases.
However, all Californians will not and have not benefited.
Californians who don’t file taxes — because they don’t earn enough to owe any — won’t receive the new round of state payments. That includes some seniors and disabled people, as well as some of the lowest-income adults.
About 3 million Californians are in families that earn little enough that they aren’t required to file taxes, according to research by the Public Policy Institute of California for its 2019 California Poverty Measure. The poverty rate among people who live in families that don’t need to file taxes is 60%, the institute estimates. Neither the state Department of Finance nor the Franchise Tax Board, which is responsible for collecting state personal income tax in California, knew exactly how many Californians will be left out of the rebate.
The payments will go out to Californians who filed 2020 tax returns by October 2021, according to the Franchise Tax Board, which has a tool for calculating how much you are eligible to receive based on how much you earn and other factors.
But in California, people earning less than $19,310 who don’t have a child or someone else depending on them — one of many different gross income thresholds — aren’t required to file income taxes. The state also doesn’t count Social Security retirement or disability benefits as taxable income, meaning people who receive those benefits aren’t required to pay taxes, so long as they have minimal other income.
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