Rebate checks would have to be approved through legislation, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Moderate- to low-income Americans should expect to see $2,000 tariff dividend checks sometime after mid-2026, President Donald Trump announced at a press briefing on Nov. 17.
Trump narrowed the check arrival window after saying on Nov. 14 that the checks would reach taxpayers next year.
“We’re going to be issuing dividends later on, somewhere prior to, you know, probably the middle of next year, a little bit later than that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The money is earmarked for people in the low- and middle-income brackets, he added.
The president first announced his idea to distribute $2,000 to taxpayers on the lower end of the income spectrum on Nov. 10.
He said the money would come from the “trillions of dollars” raised by imposing various levels of tariffs on U.S. trading partners for goods sold to Americans using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, estimated ona Nov. 17 that the tariffs would raise $2.3 trillion in revenue over the next decade, but since they represent a tax increase, their “negative economic effects” lower that amount to $1.8 trillion.
The rebate idea was made public as the Supreme Court deliberates whether using emergency economic powers to set tariffs is constitutional.
Trump defended his use of the IEEPA and said the country was taking in “trillions of dollars.” The administration plans to start paying down the national debt of $37 trillion with some of the money, according to Trump.
The idea to give money back to taxpayers from tariff revenue was written into legislation introduced in July by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
“Americans deserve a tax rebate after four years of [President Joe] Biden’s policies that have devastated families’ savings and livelihoods,” Hawley said in a statement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told “Fox News Sunday” the rebate would likely need to be codified in Congress.
“We need legislation for that,” Bessent said, adding the checks would go to “working families” and an income limit would be set. “President Trump is committed to getting money back to families.”
