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Missing Child Tax Credit Payments: How to get them once and for all

Whether you missed getting one, two or all of them ahead of time, the way to get them is to file your 2021 taxes.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Millions of families got money on November 15, 2021, or are getting money this week thanks to the Advanced Child Tax Credit Payment.

According to the IRS: more than $15 billion in payments were made to families that include roughly 61 million eligible children as a part of the fifth monthly payment of the expanded and advanceable Child Tax Credit included in the American Rescue Plan. Since the first payments were sent in July, Treasury and the IRS have delivered roughly $77 billion to families across the country. Eligible families received a payment of up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each child aged 6 to 17.

The last payment goes out the week of December 15, 2021. It will be the sixth and the last of the Advanced Child Tax Credit Payments.

What if you didn't get any of the payments? Or you only got a portion of the payments? Should you call the IRS?  No. It won't help, and it will just make you frustrated. What you should do, is wait and file a tax return.

“At worst case, if they didn’t receive it during this advanced time, they would be able to file a tax return in 2021 and receive it and they'll receive it then. Even non-filers, while they are not otherwise required to file a tax return, if they do, they will be eligible for it,” said Ryan Dodson of Liberty Tax Services.

Don’t miss that. You will not be out of the money. You will just have to wait to claim it as a tax credit when you file your taxes, and yes, there are ways to file for free.

Now let's take a look at how folks have been spending these advanced payments.

The Census Bureau's Household Pulse survey data showed that

55% of middle-income families spent their child tax credit payments on food, more than 26% spent it on clothes, and 23% spend it on costs related to school and after school.

   

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