Millions of Americas Will Start to See Child Tax Relief Payments Hit Their Bank Accounts Today

If you have children, and if you’ve filed your taxes within the past couple years, your bank account might get a boost today. The federal Child Tax Credit’s (CTC) first monthly payments are scheduled to hit bank accounts via direct deposit on July 15, 2021. That’s today.

Families with children age 17 or younger are eligible for the tax credit which is designed to help families financially during the pandemic. The IRS and Treasury sent payments for roughly 60 million children on July 15. That’s about $15 billion in payments. About 90% of the payments were made via direct deposit.

The CTC has been around since the 1990s, but this year, President Biden supersized it. The credit has been increased from $2000 to $3600 for children under 6 and $3000 for children ages 6 to 17.

The CTC is designed to help low income families. In order to qualify for the maximum credit, families with one tax payer need to make less than $75,000, and families with two tax payers (like, mom and dad), need to make less than $150,000 jointly. Families who make more than these dollar amounts, may qualify for a reduced CTC based on their income. CTC payments will be reduced by $50 for every $1000 above the limits.

If you are a single tax payer who makes between $95,000 and $200,000 or if you file jointly and earn a combined total of between $170,000 and $400,000, you will still qualify for a partial payment. The total per child will be the original $2000 divided up in monthly payments which totals about $167 each month.

This July 15 payment is the first of multiple payments which are scheduled to be paid monthly for the rest of the year.

Watch the video below to learn more about the CTC and how it is designed to help families.

If you have already checked your bank account and don’t see the CTC but you think your family qualifies, don’t worry. Even though the payments were scheduled to go out on July 15, sometimes there is a delay of a business day, or two or three before the payments actually hit the accounts.  If the IRS does not have your bank account information on file, the check will be mailed to you instead.

If you’re planning your monthly budget around these new CTC monthly payments, it might be helpful to know when they will be scheduled to be sent out each month. Besides the July 15 payment, the other payments are scheduled for August 13, September 15, October 15, November 15 and December 15.

Do you qualify for the CTC? If so, have you gotten your CTC payment yet?