New tool to help determine if you qualify for Child Tax Credit
IRS online tool helps families see if they qualify for the Child Tax Credit
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service urges families to take advantage of a special online tool that can help them determine whether they qualify for the Child Tax Credit and the special monthly advance payments beginning on July 15.
Available exclusively on IRS.gov, the new Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant, launched earlier this week, is interactive and easy to use. By answering a series of questions about themselves and their family members, a parent or other family member can quickly determine whether they qualify for the credit.
Though anyone can use this tool, it may be particularly useful to families who don’t normally file a federal tax return and have not yet filed either a 2019 or 2020 tax return. Often, these are people who receive little or no income, including those experiencing homelessness, low income households, and other underserved groups. Using this tool can help them decide whether they should take the next step and register for the Child Tax Credit payments on another new IRS tool unveiled earlier this week.
To help people understand and receive this benefit, the IRS has created a special Advance Child Tax Credit 2021 page at IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021 designed to provide the most up-to-date information about the credit and the advance payments. Among other things, the page already features a link to both the Non-filer Sign-up Tool, and the Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant, along with a third tool launched earlier this week—the Child Tax Credit Update Portal.
The Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant does not request any personally-identifiable information (PII) for any family member. For that reason, its results are not an official determination by the IRS. Though the results are reliable, if the questions are answered accurately, they should be considered preliminary. Neither the answers supplied by the user, nor the results, are retained by the IRS.
After checking the Eligibility Assistant, Non-filer Sign-Up Tool is available to help those who don’t normally file tax returns
The online Non-filer Sign-Up Tool is designed to help eligible families who don’t normally file tax returns register for the monthly Advance Child Tax Credit payments.
This tool, an update of last year’s IRS Economic Impact Payment Non-filers tool, is also designed to help eligible individuals who don’t normally file tax returns register for the $1,400 third round of Economic Impact Payments (also known as stimulus checks) and claim the Recovery Rebate Credit for any amount of the first two rounds of Economic Impact Payments they may have missed.
The Non-filer Sign-Up tool should not be used by anyone who has already filed a 2019 or 2020 federal income tax return.
Read more articles about the Advanced Child Tax Credit Payments, Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant and more on Our Blog
As always, should you have any questions or concerns regarding your tax situation please feel free to contact us.
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