The last monthly child tax credit payment of 2021 is being distributed

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department announced today that millions of American families will soon receive their final advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment for the month of December. Eligible families who did not receive advance payments can claim the Child Tax Credit on their 2021 federal tax return to receive missed payments and the other half of the credit.

This final batch of advance monthly payments for 2021, totaling about $16 billion, will reach more than 36 million families across the country. Most payments are being made by direct deposit.

Under the American Rescue Plan, eligible families have received more than 200 million payments totaling more than $93 billion. Most eligible families received payments dated July 15, Aug. 13, Sept. 15, Oct. 15, Nov. 15, and Dec 15. For eligible families, each payment is up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each child ages 6 through 17.

Here are more details on the December payments:

• Families will see the direct deposit payments in their accounts starting Dec. 15. Like the prior payments, the vast majority of families will receive them by direct deposit.
• For those receiving payments by paper check, be sure to allow extra time, through the end of December, for delivery by mail.
• Payments are going to eligible families who filed a 2019 or 2020 federal income tax return. Returns processed by Dec. 1 are reflected in these payments. This includes people who don’t typically file a return but either during 2020 successfully filed a return to register for Economic Impact Payments using the IRS Non-Filers tool on IRS.gov, or in 2021 successfully filed a return by using the Non-filer Sign-up Tool for advance CTC.
• Families who did not get a July, August, September, October or November payment and are getting their first monthly payment this month will still receive their total advance payment amount for the year (which is half of their total Child Tax Credit). This means that the total advance payment amount will be made in one December payment.

Claim the full Child Tax Credit on the 2021 tax return

Eligible families who did not receive any advance Child Tax Credit payments can claim the full amount of the Child Tax Credit on their 2021 federal tax return, filed in 2022. This includes families who don’t normally need to file a return.

Families who received advance payments will need to file a 2021 tax return and compare the advance Child Tax Credit payments they received in 2021 with the amount of the Child Tax Credit they can properly claim on their 2021 tax return.

To help taxpayers reconcile the advance payments, the IRS will send Letter 6419 in January 2022 with the total amount of advance Child Tax Credit payments taxpayers received in 2021 and the number of qualifying children used to calculate the advance payments. People should keep this and any other IRS letters about advance Child Tax Credit payments with their tax records.

See Reconciling Your Advance Child Tax Credit Payments on Your 2021 Tax Return for more information.