Last week, millions of American families received the first of monthly child tax credit payments. This money, which was earmarked as part of President Joe Biden’s US bailout, will put hundreds of dollars into the bank accounts and mailboxes of Americans with dependents every month, and it will continue until at the end of the year.
As with the last three stimulus payments, the child tax credit money will be distributed to eligible households – and that could make a significant difference for households in need. And, as with stimulus money, the IRS automatically issues child tax credit payments to those who qualify.
The IRS has already sent around 35 million payments worth $ 15 billion, and nearly 9 out of 10 payments were deposited directly into beneficiary bank accounts. That said, you may not have received your July Child Tax Credit payment yet. If you think you qualify but haven’t received your July Child Tax Credit payment yet, here’s what you need to do.
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1. Visit the Child Tax Credit Update Portal
If you haven’t received your child tax credit payment, the first thing to do is to check the Child Tax Credit Update Portal. This tool was recently launched by the IRS to provide information on enhanced child tax credit payments, including whether or not your payment has been processed.
If your payment has been processed, the portal should tell you whether it was sent by direct deposit or by mail. If your check has been mailed, you will likely have to wait longer than you would otherwise.
This tool will also offer you information on your eligibility or not for monthly payments. The eligibility rules for Enhanced Payments are not as precise as they were with Stimulus Payments, so you may not qualify for income restrictions.
2. Check your bank deposits
You can also check your bank account to see if the money has been deposited for the July Child Tax Credit Enhanced Payment. According to the White House, transactions related to the Child Tax Credit will appear in your bank account under the company name IRS TREAS 310.
If you see a deposit with this description, it should tell you that you actually received your child tax credit payment. The description will also help you if you are still not sure. It should read CHILDCTC – and the amount will be up to $ 300 per dependent in your household. This differs from the description of the deposit you will see for a tax refund, which will appear as TAX REF.
3. Wait, then drop a trail
Keep in mind that if your payment has been mailed it may take a week or more for your payment to arrive, so you will need to wait a while to see if it appears. Plus, the IRS might continue to issue the first set of child tax credit payments in the first half of this week, so your payment might not even have been sent yet.
You can file a trace with the IRS if your July direct deposit payment is still missing after about five days, or if your paper check is still missing several weeks after it is sent.
Here are the exact timeframes for which you can initiate a payment follow-up with the IRS:
- 5 days after the scheduled deposit date
- 4 weeks after sending the paper check to your home
- 6 weeks after sending the check to a forwarding address
- 9 weeks after sending the check to a foreign address
You will need to complete Form 3911 in order to file a trace with the IRS – and it could take about six weeks to get the results.
4. Update your postal or bank details
If you are concerned that your payment has not been issued because the IRS has incorrect income information on file, you can log into the IRS Child Tax Credit Update Portal to update your information. This is especially important if you have moved or changed your bank account. It’s also important if you’ve suffered a significant loss of income or added a new dependent to your household after the last tax return.
You can use the portal to update the number of eligible children in your home, as well as your marital status, any changes in your income, or any other information that could result in underpayment or no payment at all.
If you are a non-filer who is not required to file your taxes each year, your child tax credit check may be missing because your up-to-date information is not registered with the IRS. This is especially true if you have recently had a child.
In this case, you will need to use the IRS Child Tax Credit Non-Filer Enrollment Tool to sign up for any upcoming payment for which you are eligible. You will need to enter the following into the tool to make sure the IRS has the correct information on file:
- Last name and first name
- Current email address
- E-mail adress
- Date of Birth
- Valid social security numbers (or other taxpayer identifiers) for you and your dependents
- Bank account number, type and routing number, if you have one
- Personal Identity Protection Identification Number (IP PIN) you received from the IRS earlier this year, if you have one
And, if you want to turn off monthly child tax credit payments completely, you can use the same IRS update portal to do so. You will need to unsubscribe for future payments, however, as the deadline to unsubscribe from the July payment has passed.
