If this applies to you, you probably have already seen the payments deposited into your account each month on the 15th. The government has made a one-time increase to the child tax credit to $3,000 per child (up from $2,000), or $3,600 for children 5 and under. Where do those payments come into play? The purpose was to get money into the taxpayers’ hands “immediately”. Therefore, they have been depositing $250-300 per child each month as an advanced credit, with the rest of the credit being paid out when the tax return is filed.  

There are a few instances where this may affect some taxpayers in a different way. If your income has changed over the previous year, you may not receive the second half of the credit figured on your tax return. If a taxpayer had a child during the 2021 calendar year, you wouldn’t receive advanced payments for this child. Therefore, you would receive the full credit on your tax return. If there is a situation with alternating years’ custody between divorced parents, this becomes more complicated and probably requires special handling. 

The IRS was instructed to create an online portal to give taxpayers an opportunity to update information including: 

• Add/Change bank account information 
• Unenroll from these advanced payments (receive full amount on tax return) 

• Update your modified gross income 

They were also instructed to give taxpayers an option to add/change dependent information, to add the new child and amend shared custody situations. Unfortunately, the IRS hasn’t completed this and will not by the end of the year. Use this link to check your payment status and history, as well as access the options mentioned above.