Here’s How Long It Will Take To Get Your Tax Refund In 2022
Three in four Americans receive an annual tax refund from the IRS, which often is a family’s biggest check of the year. But with this tax season now open, taxpayers could see a repeat of last year’s snarls in processing, when about 30 million taxpayers had their returns and refunds held up by the IRS.
Treasury Department officials warned last month that this year’s tax season will be a challenge with the IRS starting to process returns on January 24. That’s largely due to the IRS’ sizable backlog of returns from 2021. As of December 31, the agency had 6 million unprocessed individual returns a significant reduction from a backlog of 30 million in May, but far higher than the 1 million unprocessed returns that is more typical around the start of tax season.
That may make taxpayers nervous about delays in 2022, but most Americans should get their refunds within 21 days of filing, according to the IRS. And some taxpayers are already reporting receiving their refunds, according to posts on social media.
The IRS said on February 11 that it has so far issued 4.3 million refunds worth $9.5 billion.
Yessssss. My tax refund hit my bank account!!!! Bless the financial gods!
KB
The IRS on Monday said tax returns with errors involving the third stimulus check, which are missing information or which have suspected fraud or theft could take up to 90 to 120 days to resolve.
How To Opt Out From Advance Monthly Payments
The IRS allows you to unenroll from the advance monthly payments. Are there any advantages to doing so? It depends on your situation. Here are a few reasons to consider.
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Youd prefer to receive the credit as a lump sum when you file your return instead of receiving half as advance installments.
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You suspect that the amount youll owe to the IRS is greater than your anticipated refund.
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Your tax circumstances have significantly changed since your last filing , and youre worried these changes might cause the IRS to overpay you.
If you need to unenroll, you can do so via the IRS portal. The deadline to unenroll for the December payment is Nov. 29.
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When Will Families Receive The First Child Tax Credit Payment
Qualifying families will start receiving the child tax credit payments on July 15. Subsequent payments will arrive every month on the 15th or the nearest business day to the 15th. Each child under age 6 will result in $300 monthly payments, while children aged 617 will qualify you for $250 monthly payments.
These are the dates you can expect your monthly child tax credit payments:
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Protecting The Monthly Payments From Intercepts To Repay Defaulted Student Loans
Approximately 9 million Americans are in default on their federal student loans. Tax refunds to these borrowers are subject to intercept pursuant to the Treasury Offset program. This applies even to refunds entirely comprised of the Earned Income Tax Credit and/or the Child Tax Credit. For a discussion of student borrower rights and options to avoid tax refund intercepts, see NCLCs Student Loan Law § 9.2.
Nevertheless, advance Child Tax Credit payments are not subject to intercept. Section 9611 of the American Rescue Plan specifies:
EXCEPTION FROM REDUCTION OR OFFSET.Any payment made to any individual under this section shall not be
subject to reduction or offset pursuant to subsection , , , or of section 6402 or any similar authority permitting offset, or
reduced or offset by other assessed Federal taxes that would otherwise be subject to levy or collection.
26 U.S.C. § 6402 addresses child support offsets § 6402 addresses debts owed to federal agencies § 6402 addresses state income tax debts and § 6402 addresses unemployment overpayments.
To be clear, the advance monthly Child Tax Credit payments are protected from offset to repay defaulted federal student loans. Nevertheless, the portion of the Child Tax Credit that may be paid out as a refund as part of a tax filers annual federal income tax return is not protected from offset and thus may still be seized from borrowers with defaulted student loans.
What If You Accidentally Lost Or Threw Away That Irs Letter
The IRS urges everyone to not throw away Letter 6419, since it’s necessary for confirming the amount of advance child tax credit payments and the number and ages of your children. If, however, you accidentally disposed of it or lost it, don’t panic. Your child tax credit information will be available via the child tax credit portals on the IRS website.
Registering for an account on the IRS site takes a bit of time and patience, but once you’re in, you will have all the necessary information for the child tax credit, along with other useful IRS information for preparing your taxes.
The amount of child tax credit money you get depends on a number of things.
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How Eligible Parents Can Get The Expanded Child Tax Credit
- If you filed a 2019 or 2020 tax return, youre all set checks began going out starting July 15.
- If you didnt file a tax return in 2019 or 2020 or if your child was born after you filed you can to make sure you get your credit.
- Need more information, or volunteer help? Visit GetYourRefund.org.
The plan is for the IRS to send out monthly payments through the end of 2021. Because the monthly payments will only last from July to December, they wont include the full value of the credit the rest will be sent out with tax returns in April 2022.
That sets up a challenge for the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress. They want to make some or all of these changes to the child tax credit permanent, to have the monthly benefits not abruptly stop in January. But that will require quick action by Congress, and a successful rollout of the CTC right now.
It is hard to overstate the importance of the CTC expansion, not just to poverty in America but to Joe Bidens legacy. If it sticks, it will be the largest, most important anti-poverty measure the US has taken since the Lyndon Johnson administration, and could stand as the most impactful domestic achievement of Bidens presidency. It could earn recognition alongside Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as one of the Democratic Partys most enduring and popular policies.
But it has to stick and Biden and his allies in Congress need to act fast to make that happen.
The Build Back Better Act Child Tax Credit Extension
Concern about whether Child Tax Credit advance payments will continue in 2022 overshadows conversation in Washington as Congress debates passage of the Build Back Better Act , which, among other things, extends the enhanced credit for at least another year. If the BBBA does not pass or is amended by Congress to exclude part or all of the Advance Child Tax Credit payments, the program ends as of the Dec. 2021 payment.
The Build Back Better Act would make the creditâs increased availability to the poorest families permanent, a move that the Jain Family Institute says would cut child poverty in the U.S. by 19%. BBBA would also keep the enhanced child tax credit for all but the wealthiest families alive for one more year.
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How Much Will My 2021 Child Tax Credit Amount Decrease By If I Have A Higher Income
The 2021 CTC will be reduced in two steps:
If you qualify for the $2,000 CTC, you will also receive advance payments.
When Do We Pay Your Benefit
You are eligible to receive the CCB in the month following the month you become an eligible individual. For more information, see Are you eligible?.
We generally pay your benefit on the 20th of each month. However, if your monthly amount is less than $20, we will make one lump-sum payment on July 20, 2021 or at a later date, to cover the entire payment period from July 2021 to June 2022.
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Ensure Child Tax Credit Letters Are Correct
The child tax credit disbursements surely assisted many struggling American families. However, those same individuals now have an extra step to complete when submitting this years annual tax return forms. Those who opted to receive the payment in installments should have received the IRSs Letter 6419by now.
Essentially, Letter 6419 outlines for American families the total dollar amount received during that six-month period of 2021. It also details the number of eligible children for which those families received those funds. The government agency expects tax filers to utilize the letters to determine exactly how much to claim for 2021.
Overall, the purpose of the letter is straightforward. However, in recent weeks, the IRS received reports nationally that handfuls of these letters listed incorrect information. The issue comes in the latest string of glitches the IRS has experienced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Therefore, before you submit your tax return, it is essential that Outsiders who received the payments throughout 2021 ensure their Letter 6419 is correct. Fortunately, we have information regarding how you can be sure youre listing the correct totals when filing your taxes.
The Next Step For Policymakers: Making The Child Allowance Permanent
Even more important over the long run than reaching the poorest households is making sure the child tax credit does not expire after a year.
The Biden CTC expansion is modeled after a bill embraced by most Democratic members of the House and Senate in 2019 known as the American Family Act. That act would have expanded the CTC to the same amounts as Biden , made the credit available to people with no income , and paid it out monthly. All of that is in Bidens plan.
But the AFA was a permanent policy, whereas Biden only implemented these improvements for one year.
Members of Congress behind the AFA are pushing hard to make these increases permanent as soon as possible. In a statement in April, its champions in the Senate , Sherrod Brown , and Cory Booker ) and the House , Suzan DelBene , and Ritchie Torres ) declared, Expansion of the Child Tax Credit is the most significant policy to come out of Washington in generations, and Congress has an historic opportunity to provide a lifeline to the middle class and to cut child poverty in half on a permanent basis. Permanent expansion of the CTC will continue to be our priority.
Bennet has said he will fight like hell for a permanent extension, and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal are on board to make the policy permanent.
This is a complicated idea, so let me walk through it a bit.
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Avoiding A Freeze Of An Advance Child Tax Credit Payment
A U.S. Treasury rule provides an important protection for bank accounts into which Social Security , Supplemental Security Income , Veterans Administration , federal Railroad Retirement, federal Railroad Unemployment and Sickness, federal Civil Service Retirement System, or federal Employee Retirement System benefits have been directly deposited. If these payments have been directly deposited within the two months before the garnishment, special rules apply that require the bank to protect two months worth of the funds. That amount can neither be frozen nor seized. Importantly, the amount that was deposited is protected, whether or not the amount in the account at the time of the garnishment can be traced to those federal benefits. SeeNCLCs Collection Actions § 14.5.4.
If these federal benefits were directly deposited into an account, the Child Tax Credit payment is fully protected from freeze if the amount in the account at the time of the garnishment order does not exceed the amount of the eligible federal benefit payments that were deposited within the preceding two months. One strategy before the 15th of a given month is to transfer or withdraw enough out of the account so that the amount in the account plus the new Child Tax Credit deposit is below this protected amount.
How Were The Advance Payments Be Sent
If the IRS already has your banking information because you had a tax refund directly deposited, your advance payments were sent as a direct deposit. The direct deposits were labeled ChildCTC. The IRS uses the sources listed below to know which bank account to deposit your payments in:
If the IRS does not have any of your banking information, your advance payments will be sent by mail.
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Will I Lose Out If I Didnt Sign Up In Time To Get A Payment On July 15
No. Everyone can receive the full Child Tax Credit benefits they are owed. If you signed up for monthly payments later in the year, your remaining monthly payments will be larger to reflect the payments you missed. If you do not sign-up in time for monthly payments in 2021, you will receive the full benefit when you file your tax return in 2022.
Qualifying For The Higher Credit Amount
Question: Do all families qualify for the higher per-child tax credit of $3,000 or $3,600?
Answer: No, not all families with children get the higher child tax credit, but most will. The enhanced tax break begins to phase out at modified AGIs of $75,000 on single returns, $112,500 on head-of-household returns and $150,000 on joint returns. The amount of the credit is reduced by $50 for each $1,000 of modified AGI over the applicable threshold amount. Note that this phaseout is limited to the $1,000 or $1,600 temporary increased credit for 2021 and not to the $2,000 credit.
For example, if a married couple has one child who is four years old, files a joint return, and has a modified AGI of $160,000 for 2021, they won’t get the full $3,600 enhanced credit. Instead, since their modified AGI is $10,000 above the phase-out threshold for joint filers , their credit is reduced by $500 resulting in a final 2021 credit of $3,100.
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What Does The Build Back Better Act Have To Do With The Child Tax Credit
The BBBA, currently still proposed legislation as of Dec. 15, 2021, would continue the Advance Child Tax Credit in 2022 for most families. It would also make the enhanced credit permanent for the poorest families. This only goes into effect if Congress passes the BBBA legislation and it is signed into law by President Biden.
What To Do Next
Anyone who received the Child Tax Credit in 2021 can refer to their account on the IRS online portal. It will show them how much theyve already received. Speaking of which, make sure you submit your 2021 taxes as soon as possible, to avoid any potential delays.
Be aware that the IRS wont be issuing refunds for the Child Tax Credit until at least mid-February. Despite that, you can get your payments quicker if you do two things. First, file your tax return electronically. Mailed-in paper returns take much longer to process. Secondly, make sure you have direct deposit payments from the IRS set up. Following these steps should ensure your Child Tax Credit funds reach you in the quickest possible timeframe usually within 21 days of filing.
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Updating Bank Account Information
Question: I want to make sure that the IRS has my correct bank account information so that my monthly payments can be directly deposited into my account. How do I do that?
Answer: As a general rule, most payments will be directly deposited into bank accounts. Families for which the IRS does not have bank account information could receive paper checks or debit cards in the mail. You can go on the IRS’s Child Tax Credit Update Portal to check whether you are supposed to get direct deposit payments and the bank account into which such payments will be made. Those who are not enrolled for direct deposit get paper checks or debit cards unless they update their bank account information.
The tool also allows people to add a bank account for direct deposits or change the currently existing one listed on the portal. You will have to enter the bank routing number, account number, and indicate whether the account is a checking account or savings account.
Question: What if I had a baby this year? Will I get advance payments?
Has The Number Of Children In Your Care Changed
We may need to recalculate your benefit payments based on new information when one of the following situations applies:
- your child is born, a child starts to live with you, or you share custody of a child
- a child for whom you are getting benefits no longer lives with you on a full-time basis, stops living with you, or has died.You can tell us by using one of the following methods:
When we get notification of your change in marital status, we will recalculate your CCB taking into consideration your new marital status and your new adjusted family net income.
Your CCB will be adjusted starting with the month following the month that your marital status changed.
Example 1
Terry was single and received the CCB for their two children based on her income only. In September 2021, Terry married Peter. Peters net income in 2020 was $100,000. Terry informed us of their new marital status by using My Account. We will base the CCB payments on Terrys new adjusted family net income and their CCB payments will change starting with the October 2021 payment.
Example 2
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