Taxpayers who qualify for the newly expanded child tax credit will receive a letter from the IRS in the following days informing them of their eligibility, the agency announced Monday, June 7.
The American Rescue Plan Act, enacted in March, authorized the child tax credit. The IRS bases eligible families on information they included in either their 2019 or 2020 federal income tax return or who used the non-filers tool on IRS.gov last year to register for an economic impact payment.
An estimated 36 million families qualify for the benefit, which is worth up to $300 per month for each qualifying dependent child under age 6 in 2021, and up to $250 for each child between the ages of 6 and 17.
The IRS will send the first payment on July 15. After that, taxpayers can expect the payments in their bank accounts roughly halfway through each month through December, per the IRS. See the official dates.