Fourth batch of California stimulus checks: how to check and claim my payment

The California Franchise Tax Board (CFTB) has confirmed that the next round of payments as part of the Golden State stimulus check initiative has been sent out.

Last week the state authority began distributing a batch of around 1.15 million direct payments, most of which are expected to be sent out by mail on Monday 1 November. The total value of this round is $857 million, according to the CFTB.

To be eligible for the payments, California residents must have submitted their state tax returns by 15 October. Unfortunately, if you have not yet done so then it is too late to claim your Golden State stimulus check.

How to check your Golden State stimulus check amount

Even once the roughly 750,000 paper checks are sent out on Monday, the CFTB warns that it can take weeks for the payments to arrive. Prior to this batch of payments only 4.5 million of the 9 million stimulus checks had been distributed, meaning that half of eligible residents are yet to receive their money.

If this is you, you may be anxious to learn how much you are set to receive and fortunately the CFTB has introduced an online portal to estimate the size of your payment.

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To do so, simply head over to the Golden State Stimulus II Amount webpage and utilise the free estimator tool, which will ask a few simple questions and then outline how much you and your household are set to receive.

When will my Golden State stimulus check arrive?

While there is a fairly simple way to find out the size of your direct payment, finding out when the money will actually arrive is slightly more difficult.

As was the case with all three rounds of federal stimulus checks, those receiving the money in the form of a direct debit into a bank account were prioritised because it is the faster payment method. However now that the majority of direct payments have been made, those waiting for a physical Golden State stimulus check will be next up.

In recent weeks the tax agency has pointed to "various processing complaints, including printing and mailing" as potential reasons for additional delays for paper checks. They added that they have an obligation “to validate eligibility, protect against fraud and issue GSS II payments simultaneously with other mandatory disbursements.”

To avoid being overwhelmed by a sudden burst of payments, the CFTB will mail out physical stimulus checks in six batches correlating with the final three digits of the recipient’s ZIP code.

Payment schedule for paper stimulus checks

Source: California Franchise Tax Board, 2021