The information below about the IRS portals is an update to a previous blog post. For specific details regarding the Child Tax Credit, read the previous post linked here.
As mentioned in our recent ClientTell and blog post, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for 2021. One of the major changes includes advance CTC payments that eligible taxpayers will begin receiving in July 2021. We noted in those articles that the IRS has been working on portals to both elect out of the advance payments and to change personal information such as your mailing address, bank information, number of dependents, and changes in income. The portal is now available. Keep reading for some further details about the portal.
- Currently, the portal can only be used to view your eligibility for advance payments and to unenroll from advance payments.
- If you do not have an existing IRS or ID.me account, have your photo identification ready. You will be required to set up one of these types of accounts to verify your identity.
- If you are married and file jointly, both the taxpayer and the spouse must enroll. If only one spouse unenrolls, you will still receive half the joint payment.
- You can unenroll at any time, but you must do so at least three days before the first Thursday of the month of which you are opting out. To stop the initial advance payment, you must unenroll by Monday, June 28, 2021. If you miss the June 28 deadline to stop the July payment, unenroll by August 2 to opt out of additional advance payments.
- You cannot currently opt back in if you opt out. You may be able to opt back in by late September 2021.
- The IRS suggests using the portal on a laptop or desktop computer, not on a phone.
More functionality will be added later to update your mailing address, bank information, number of dependents, change in marital status, and change in income.
Additional Information
The IRS portal can be reached at the link below:
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021
Additional information about ID.me and the steps you will need to take to verify your identity can be reached at the link below.