Child Tax Credit Opt Out

[stessier]

The IRS has opened the portal to check on your Child Tax Credit availability and to opt out of the monthly payments.

I'm still in the account creation process. I'm not thrilled with having to provide a photo id that will be kept for 7 years.

[LawBeefaroni]

[url=https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/ ... ate-portal] I'm not thrilled with having to provide a photo id that will be kept for 7 years.

Not that they don't already have all my information but I'm not going to fuck around with that. If I get a payment it will go into the old credit union account until tax time. If I don't, great. I'll let the accountant sort it all out.

[stessier]

Wow, I just went through the whole process to confirm my ID which required submitting both sides of my license (note - if you do this step, it failed on me the first time I tried each time...just reupload and it will work), a video selfie scan, and a soft credit check. (Given what they want, make sure you do this from either a smart phone or make sure you have a webcam.) Finally they shared my info with the IRS who let me know I qualify for the credit.

To unenroll, both me and my wife have to unenroll because we filed a joint return. So she has to do the same thing. Ugh.

Edit: If you do want to unenroll, you have to do so 3 days before the first Thursday of the next month by 11:59pm ET.

[wonderpug]

Why do you want to unenroll?

[stessier]

Why do you want to unenroll?

Because if they send it to me now, I will end up owing it back to them next year and I don't want to worry about paying them.

[Jeff V]

Wife thought about unenrolling -- I just wanted to see how much we're talking about since we were over the limit in 2020. If I become employed soon, we could very well be over the limit this year too. However, our plan is to put the money in the kids 529 accounts. If we owe more because we are over the limit, the tax liability will be unchanged...however, with the money in their 529 account, it could grow.

That said, I grew weary of the hoops just to check. I was doing it on a laptop with no webcam, and it decided it wanted to have a video chat with one of their tech monkeys. No thank you.

[naednek]

Why do you want to unenroll?

Because if they send it to me now, I will end up owing it back to them next year and I don't want to worry about paying them.

confused. how would we owe it back when they are giving it to you?

[coopasonic]

Why do you want to unenroll?

Because if they send it to me now, I will end up owing it back to them next year and I don't want to worry about paying them.

confused. how would we owe it back when they are giving it to you?

If you have your withholding set up properly so you don't get a refund at tax time before these payments, with these payments, you will owe them back at tax time. The payments aren't any kind of freebie (except they increased the credit a bit) they are just doling them out ahead of time. For me, I always get a big refund so with the payments my refund will just be smaller. For smarter folks it's a different story.

[stessier]

Why do you want to unenroll?

Because if they send it to me now, I will end up owing it back to them next year and I don't want to worry about paying them.

confused. how would we owe it back when they are giving it to you?

If you have your withholding set up properly so you don't get a refund at tax time before these payments, with these payments, you will owe them back at tax time. The payments aren't any kind of freebie (except they increased the credit a bit) they are just doling them out ahead of time. For me, I always get a big refund so with the payments my refund will just be smaller. For smarter folks it's a different story.

Yeah, this. These aren't like the stimulus payments - the child tax credits are an advance on what you would get when you file your taxes.

[Octavious]

Ya I really should opt out as I will get screwed by this. Well I can just put it on the side but it's annoying to have a payment. I think this is a terrible idea but whatever. I usually break even on taxes because I withhold correctly.

[naednek]

Why do you want to unenroll?

Because if they send it to me now, I will end up owing it back to them next year and I don't want to worry about paying them.

confused. how would we owe it back when they are giving it to you?

If you have your withholding set up properly so you don't get a refund at tax time before these payments, with these payments, you will owe them back at tax time. The payments aren't any kind of freebie (except they increased the credit a bit) they are just doling them out ahead of time. For me, I always get a big refund so with the payments my refund will just be smaller. For smarter folks it's a different story.

Yeah, this. These aren't like the stimulus payments - the child tax credits are an advance on what you would get when you file your taxes.

Well that sucks, and now I'm forced to go through hoops to say no I don't want advance. Instead they should make people who want the credit go through that bullshit.

[Octavious]

There will be a lot of upset people come tax time as most people don't pay attention to this sort of stuff.

[stessier]

Instead they should make people who want the credit go through that bullshit.

Without getting too R&P, the idea was to make it easiest for the most at-risk people to get extra funds during troubled times.

[Hrothgar]

I believe they're only giving you half of the increased child tax credit in prepayments. They increased the credit by $1600 for kids 5 and under and $1000 for kids 6-17. So it shouldn't be a major problem for most people. If you have one kid under 6, you get $1800 in prepayments and $1800 at tax time instead of your previously expected $2000. That's off the top of my head so please check my numbers.

[stessier]

I believe they're only giving you half of the increased child tax credit in prepayments. They increased the credit by $1600 for kids 5 and under and $1000 for kids 6-17. So it shouldn't be a major problem for most people. If you have one kid under 6, you get $1800 in prepayments and $1800 at tax time instead of your previously expected $2000. That's off the top of my head so please check my numbers.

Yep. It went from $2000 for every kid to $3600 for 6 and under and $3000 for all other kids. And yes, you'll get half of that in 6 even monthly payments starting in July.