Monthly child tax credit in 2021? Here's how to file in 2022 - YouTube

If you're anything like me, you got those  monthly child tax credit payments in 2021  

and now you're wondering: How in the world do I  file this on my taxes? Well, I'm here today to  

give you some answers. I'll tell you three ways  to figure out how much money you already got,  

I'll tell you how much money you should have  gotten, and I'll tell you who's going to need to  

repay those monthly payments. Let's look at those  three ways that you can figure out how much money  

you got. The first is the simplest and that's to  look at your bank statement. You're going to want  

to look at ACH payments that were from IRS TREAS  and it'll have a memo on it that says Child CTC.  

By looking for that Child CTC, you can figure out  which ones are those child tax credit payments  

as opposed to regular tax refund payments. Keep  in mind that if you are married filing jointly,  

it is possible that the two spouses could have had  deposits into two separate bank accounts so make  

sure you're finding all of those deposits. Your  second option is to check the IRS child tax credit  

portal. I have videos about how to get into those  it's not the easiest but you can do it. There  

are two different ways to get in you can use an  IRS.gov account or you can use an ID.me account.  

I'll link at the end to those videos in case you  need to get into the portal but inside the portal  

you'll be able to see all the payments and what  bank accounts they were sent to. And the third  

way you can figure out how much you got is to wait  for your letter from the IRS. The IRS is going to  

send letters to everyone who got monthly payments  in 2021. It's called the IRS letter 6419. Now of  

course they're saying they're gonna send them to  everyone but we know from past experience that the  

IRS has had a rough time lately getting everything  done so it might not work out for everyone. They  

are supposed to be sending those letters out in  January 2022. Let me know down in the comments  

if you got one. I haven't gotten mine yet but the  letter should detail all the payments you got and  

the total that you should be entering into your  tax return. Now if you're married filing jointly,  

both spouses will get that letter. The letter  should be mailed to the address that was on file  

with the IRS as of your last tax return that  you filed, unless you changed it in one of the  

portals. So while there are multiple ways you can  figure out how much money you got from the IRS,  

I would suggest waiting for that letter because  that is what you're going to use to enter into  

your tax return and you do want that number to be  right. If you are wrong about the number you enter  

into your tax return, it is going to delay your  tax refund this year. All right so next up how  

much should you have gotten? If you have a child  that was under age six as of December 31st 2021,  

then you should have gotten a total of $1800 in  child tax credit payments. That is half of the  

total child tax credit. The total child tax credit  for children under six is $3600. You got $1800 in  

payments and you're supposed to get $1800 at tax  time. If your child is between the ages of six but  

under age eighteen you should have gotten a total  of $1500 in payments and you'll get $1500 on your  

tax return. Now remember that those payments did  go to the person who claimed the child in 2020.  

They got the payments in 2021 but it's based on  who claimed the child in 2020. So this gets a  

little complicated for people who have parents who  are not married and file separately. I know some  

families like to go back and forth on who claims  the child so it could have gone to the wrong  

parent in 2021. If you got payments and you were  not the parent who is going to claim the child for  

2021 it is possible you will have to repay those  payments. The other situation that can happen is  

if your income in 2020 was lower than your income  in 2021 and in 2021 your income was too high to  

qualify for this expanded child tax credit.  If that happened you may also have to repay  

these payments. All right so if you are in one of  those situations, you may not have to repay them.  

The expanded child tax credit has what's called  a repayment protection program so lower income  

families that got payments that they should not  have gotten do not have to repay them. So if you  

are a single filer under forty thousand dollars  a year or a joint filer under sixty thousand  

dollars a year, you will will not have to repay  any payments even if you got some that you should  

not have gotten. If your income is between 40 and  80 thousand as a single filer or between 60 and  

120 thousand as a joint filer, you may only have  to repay a partial amount of that extra payment  

that you got that you should not have gotten. I  do also want to point out for those who may have  

to repay some of these payments, it is very likely  that it's just going to reduce your refund amount.  

You're very unlikely to have to actually write  a check to the IRS because most people do get a  

tax refund at the end of the year. So if you were  supposed to get $2,000, maybe you're only gonna  

get $500 but it doesn't mean you're gonna have  to write a check to repay the IRS. If you haven't  

filed your taxes yet, next up definitely check  out my video about the best tax software in 2022.  

I'll go over which ones have the best features  and which ones are the best value for the money.