The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has finalized plans to pay out the enhanced child tax credit to eligible families starting from July 15. The service is also launching two web portals to help people fill out the necessary forms and to calculate how much they qualify for. The portals will enable people to make necessary changes to their personal information and to opt-out of monthly payments in favor of one lump payment.
Monthly payments of $300 will be paid out for each child from the 15th of each month, but families can choose for one lump payment of $3,600. Although the payment amount depends on the age reached by the child by the end of the year, the parents must meet a certain income limit to qualify for the full payment. Financial experts even said it is possible to obtain an extra $8,000 to $16,000 credit for child care expenses under certain circumstances.
Parents can update their personal information on the new online portals if anything changed since the last time they filed their tax returns so that the IRS can determine the correct amount for child tax credits. These family circumstances can include loss of job, reduction in paid income, expected arrival of a new baby, new child custody status, or new child adoption among other things.
“That change of circumstances portal should allow them to enter their change in marital status and also where the children are,” said Nina Olson, the executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights.
Olson pointed out that where two parents have shared custody of their child, only one parent will get the child’s tax credit payment and not the two parents. But in a situation where one payment has full custody of the child, the parent will be the one eligible for the child’s payment.
People who do not file their income taxes can also use one of the portals to claim their child’s credit. In fact, homeless people can also do the same, and people who do not operate any bank accounts as well. This set of people will only have a simple electronic form sent to the IRS to qualify for the payments and the details may include the age and number of their children.
Homeless people who have no permanent addresses can also hope to get payments for their children once they check out the two IRS portals to launch. The tax agency set July 1 to open the portals, but the timeline can change due to many factors.
Source: cnet.com