Fast Facts for July 15, 2021
The first payment of the monthly child tax credit has hit bank accounts across the country.
The treasury department says that means American families with almost 60 million children got payments today totaling $15 billion.
The IRS says tax returns processed by June 28 are reflected in these payments that includes people who registered on the non-filers portal back in 2020 or when it was announced in 2021. These payments also include those who would qualify based on their 2019 tax return – if 2020 returns haven’t been processed yet.
A few *important* details to remember.
The child tax credit is *not* new. Families with qualified dependents have been getting this tax break for more than 20 years. What’s new is credit amount and the fact that parents can choose to take half of the credit up front in monthly installments. This is money taxpayers with qualified dependents were going to receive anyway.
This new child tax credit is fully refundable. Which means, unlike before — if you don’t have an income or don’t have a tax obligation, you are able to claim this money.
This monthly child tax credit and the refundable provision that came along with it is *only* will only be available for 2021. Unless congress passes a new law to extend it past that.
If you didn’t receive your payment or you got a payment that is not correct, you need to do a few things. 1. Make sure you’ve filed your 2020 tax return. 2. Create an irs.gov account and then log on the child tax credit portal and figure out what information the IRS is using for you. If the number of qualified dependents is wrong, if your income or taxpayer status is incorrect and that’s what’s holding your payments back, then you will be able to update that in the portal later this summer.
Treasury Department announcement here.
IRS announcement here.
