Fast Facts for August 13, 2021
Are you qualified and missing your august monthly child tax credit payment? The IRS just said there may be an explanation for that.
First — as I told you in this video yesterday — 36 million qualified families were issued payments today.
However, the IRS says there was a technical issue with august payments for about 15% of you. For that group — the IRS says you may be receiving your august payment by paper check instead of by direct deposit. They said it was an internal system issue and yes — you may be one of those receiving a paper check even if you received July’s payment by direct deposit.
If you suspect that’s what happened to you, check your account on the child tax credit portal to confirm you are getting a paper check. If you are — the IRS says you don’t have to do anything else – they’ve corrected the problem and you will receive September’s payment by direct deposit as expected.
If you are receiving a check by mail, you will need to allow extra time for the post office to deliver it to you.
If you know you qualify for a monthly payment but didn’t receive July’s payment the IRS says you will still get it — they will chop up the amount you are owed and spread it out over the remaining payments issued to you in 2021. Payments were issued for those whose tax return was processed by august 2nd.
And for those of you with an ITIN number and children with social security numbers who qualify and didn’t receive your July payment — the IRS says they’ve corrected the issue for you too. The IRS is issuing you an august payment with a portion of July’s payment now — and then the remainder of July’s payment will be issued by the end of August.
PLUS
Covid19 vaccine booster shots are now authorized — but only for a specific group of people. I’ll explain who in a second.
But first — here’s what’s happening.
Because of the accelerating spread of Covid19 across the country, late on Thursday the FDA amended the Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer and Moderna Covid19 vaccines. This afternoon the CDC advisory board met unanimously agreed and the CDC director signed off.
The FDA says the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not included because there was insufficient data on the results of giving additional doses.
So who now qualifies for a booster?
Only immunocompromised people — specifically the group includes, but is not limited to, people who have received organ transplants, cancer patients undergoing treatment that compromises their immune system, those who have chronic medical conditions that can weaken immune response, like chronic kidney disease…as well as people with immunodeficiency syndromes, like those with advanced or untreated HIV. According to the CDC – that entire group of people is very small — less than 3% (about 7 million) of all US adults. If you are unclear if you are immunocompromised or you don’t really know if you fall into this category — check with your doctor.
If you are immunocompromised — the FDA says — even if and when you get the booster you should still mask and social distance from others.
Both the FDA and CDC made it very clear — this booster dose is not recommended for those who are *not* immunocompromised.
That doesn’t mean a booster is out of the question in the future for everyone else…the FDA and CDC say it just means it’s not needed right now.
CDC list of those immunocompromised who would qualify for this booster here.
FDA announcement here.
CDC Director statement on boosters here.
