2021 Child Tax Credit and Advance Child Tax Credit Payments — Topic J: Unenrolling from Advance Payments

A1. Individuals have chosen to unenroll from receiving advance Child Tax Credit payments for several reasons.  For example, individuals chose to unenroll because they expected the amount of tax that they would owe to be greater than their expected refund when they file their 2021 tax return. 

The payments that individuals received were an advance of the Child Tax Credit that they would normally get when they file their 2021 tax return. Because these credits were paid in advance, every dollar received by an individual in 2021 will reduce the amount of Child Tax Credit that the individual can claim on their 2021 tax return. This means that by accepting advance Child Tax Credit payments, the amount of an individual’s refund may be reduced or the amount of tax that they owe may increase.

Individuals could avoid owing tax to the IRS by unenrolling from advance Child Tax Credit payments and claiming the credit when they file their 2021 tax return during the 2022 tax filing season.
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A2. To stop advance payments or to make changes to your bank information through the Child Tax Credit Update Portal (CTC UP), you needed to unenroll or make changes 3 days before the first Thursday of the next month by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

Note:  Once you unenrolled for one month, you did not need to unenroll for subsequent months.

Updates made by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 29 were reflected in the monthly advance Child Tax Credit payments disbursed in December.

A3. You received the next scheduled advance Child Tax Credit payment until we processed your request to unenroll.

Updates made by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 29 were reflected in the monthly advance Child Tax Credit payments disbursed in December. 
 

A4. It could have taken up to seven calendar days.

Updates made by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 29 were reflected in the monthly advance Child Tax Credit payments disbursed in December.  

A5. No.  Unenrollment was a one-time action that could not be reversed.

A6. Yes. Unenrolling applied solely to the individual who unenrolled with the IRS.

A7. If you didn’t unenroll, you would have continued to receive half of the joint payment you were supposed to receive with your spouse.