How many Golden State Stimulus check payments are being sent this week in California?

At least 750,000 paper California stimulus checks were sent out via mail on Monday, November 15, the California Franchise Tax Board (CFTB) announced.

On Friday, November 15, the state issued about 34,000 direct deposits of the Golden State Stimulus II payments, the Board added. Most direct deposits were sent by the end of October.

"We expect the vast majority of all GSS II payments will be issued by year's end, but they will continue into early next year," a spokesperson for the Tax Board said.

Nearly all the current checks being sent are physical paper checks. They are sent in batches based on resident's zip codes, with the latest round being sent to people living in zip codes 303-543. It could take up to three weeks for the batch to be fully sent and received, estimated to be by December 3, 2021.

Zip Code Distribution Schedule

What is the Golden State Stimulus?

California is one of the few states that have started their own stimulus checks. Now on their second edition, residents can receive a $600 payment if they are making less than $75,000 a year. In February, the governor signed a law that allowed for the sending of $600 checks to low-income individuals and non-citizens who were unable to receive federal stimulus checks. However, the checks are not available for people who received checks in GSS I, unless they have dependents.

So far, more than 6 million checks have been sent out. Those payments represent around $4.1 billion of the $12 billion slated for the scheme that Governor Newsom touted as “the largest state tax rebate in American history.” With checks going to roughly two thirds of households in the state, or around 15.2 million taxpayers, there are still approximately 7.5 million payments to go.

Around nine million people became eligible to receive the $600 direct payment after the requirements were expanded in July. More than 1.15 million payments are included in the latest batch, which will cost the state $857 million. This follows the 4.5 million stimulus checks previously distributed by the CFTB, at a total cost of $3.2 billion.

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How do I sign up if I am eligible?

Unfortunately, the deadline for submitting your tax return if you were eligible to receive the check was October 15.

There has been no announcement about whether the scheme will return for a third round in 2022, but at this stage it is looking unlikely.