Free Rent Proposed in New Stimulus Bill

Free Rent Proposed in New Stimulus Bill

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So before we get into the questions let’s talk about the proposed Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act.

So Representative Ill-han Omar from Minnesota has proposed the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act that would provide for rent payment cancellation and mortgage payment cancellation for primary residences only, retroactive back to March 13, and lasting one year, unless extended.

The amounts wouldn’t have to be paid back, and there wouldn’t be any effects on your credit.

Now, what about landlords? Well, the bill provides for a relief fund administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Developments for landlords to cover their losses.

In order for landlords to receive money from the fund, they would have to comply with certain rules for five years.

Remember, this would be very exciting for many people, but keep in mind that this is just a proposal right now.

We’ve already gone over the Emergency Money for the People Act, which is also just a proposal right now, but I’m curious to know which you would prefer — the Emergency Money for the People Act or the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act.

It probably just comes down to your numbers, right? If you’re single with no children and pay less than $2,000 a month in rent, you’d probably prefer the Emergency Money for the People Act, right?

But if you pay more than $2,000 a month in rent, you might prefer the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act, I’m going to put a poll in the channel later today where you can vote.

And I’m not saying this is reality either or, heavily modified versions of these bills may pass, because I don’t think they’ll pass as-is, if they do pass at all, they will go back and forth and back and forth, just like the CARES Act.

In my April 16 update, I mentioned the simple reason why dead people are getting stimulus checks, and it makes complete sense with how this process is working, Trump has said he wants to get that money back. He said, “Sometimes you send a check to somebody wrong. Sometimes people are listed. They die and they get a check. That can happen. We’ll get the money back. Everything we’re going to get back, but it’s a tiny amount.”

Democratic Senator Kiersten Jillibrand of New York, the same one who was previously vying for the Democratic nomination, called for the Department of Justice to investigate the payments made to dead people.

70,000 dead people got stimulus under Obama, I haven’t really taken the time to analyze this, but let’s just say it’s 100,000 this time around.

$1,200 times 100,000 is $120,000,000.

That’s $120,000,000 that’s essentially going to individuals who in the last couple years lost a loved one, in many cases just due to the nature of the demographics of death, a lot of these individuals were likely older, and maybe the $1,200 made out to them is going to end up in the account of their surviving spouse, who’s only income is Social Security.

Would that $120,000,000 have gone somewhere else, been better managed? Yes, but frankly the time and cost involved to “fix” this would probably be enormous considering that this is the government and the IRS handling this.

And remember, this is $120,000,000, this is a huge number for you and me, but there is fat in the government to the tune of 1,000 times more than $120,000,000 that if we’re going to look into something, my point is, there’s bigger fish to fry than dead grandpa getting a check and grandma ultimately cashing it, grandma who’s only income a $1,500 monthly check from Social Security, so now grandma ends up with a $2,400 stimulus rather than $1,200.

And of course, this is just a talking point. And you know what another crappy thing about this is that I haven’t really talked about.

We know that if you’re an undocumented immigrant, you don’t get a check. That’s one thing, and we can have a healthy debate about that.

But you also don’t get a check even if you yourself are a U.S. citizen and you’re married to an undocumented immigrant, no social, and you file your income tax returns jointly with them, nor do you get the $500 for your children, born here, natural-born citizens.

Only exception: those in the military.

So if you’re not in the military, especially because you can’t amend a joint return to file separately. You can amend to go from married filing separately to married filing jointly, but you can’t amend a tax return to go from married filing jointly to married filing separately.

Maybe the answer is to file separately in 2020, but you know they’re basing this off 2018 or 2019, so I don’t know if that’s going to help you, or the IRS will come up with some kind of injured spouse relief, I’m not sure, no guidance on this yet.

Look, undocumented immigrants don’t get the check. I think no matter where you fall on the political spectrum you can see the reasoning behind that, but I’m not OK with citizens, natural-born, native citizens, under the income limits, not dependents, not getting a check simply because of to whom they are married.

And I’ve mentioned this before, I put out a video on April 1 about various stimulus scams to watch out for, and now there are reports around the country of these things happening at a large scale, and with all the confusion about the IRS Get My Payment tool and communicate your direct deposit information, a lot of scammers are posing as the IRS saying in a letter or a phone call, saying, “The Get My Payment tool is overloaded. Please submit your banking information and other information to us so we can process your stimulus payment.”

The IRS is not doing that, they are not calling you asking you for banking information, they are not mailing letters asking you for banking information, they are not emailing or texting you, they are sending letters 15 days after they send you (or someone) your payment, and they say they will put information in that letter about how to fix your stimulus payment if you didn’t get it, but they are not asking for banking information in any other way right now than the Get My Payment tool, so if you receive any communication to that effect, know it’s a scam.

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