From the Archive

Economic Impact Payment / Stimulus Payment Info (April 2020)

By Harry Shurek · Originally published April 2, 2020 · Preserved with 2026 notes · 3 min read

From the archive. This post is preserved at its original address as a record of the period it was written in. A 2026 perspective is included below.

A note from 2026

Published in the first days of the CARES Act, this post walked readers through the original Economic Impact Payments — eligibility, amounts, and how the IRS would deliver them. The program is long concluded; we keep the post as part of the site's record of that period.

Why it mattered to our readers

Cannabis business owners had particular questions in 2020: the businesses themselves were shut out of most federal relief, including PPP, because of federal status — but owners and employees were eligible for individual payments like everyone else. We spent that spring helping people separate what the business could not access from what individuals could.

The durable lesson

When federal relief programs appear, cannabis businesses are routinely excluded while cannabis *people* are not — a distinction that returned with later programs and will matter again in whatever comes next. Knowing which side of that line a benefit sits on is worth a call before assuming.

Talk to a cannabis accountant, not a generalist

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This article is general information, not tax advice.