IRS Statement — Advance Child Tax Credit October payments

October 29, 2021

In October, the IRS delivered a fourth monthly round of approximately 36 million Child Tax Credit payments totaling $15 billion. As part of the continuing process of building out the advance CTC program, which has included outreach to bring in previous non-filers and the launch of the CTC Update Portal that has allowed millions of taxpayers to choose options for their payments, the IRS has also identified certain payees who appear to have mistakenly received advance CTC payments. These payments were made in July, August, and September for children who are too old to qualify for payments or, in some cases, for children who were claimed on multiple tax returns. Fewer than 1% of advance monthly payments fall into these categories. Starting with the October payments, the individuals who received those payments (approximately 220, 000 people) will stop receiving payments.

For qualifying children claimed on multiple returns, the eligible individual will receive any remaining Child Tax Credit when they file their 2021 return next year. For those who were erroneously receiving payments for a child who is 18 or older at the end of 2021, those payments have been stopped. Also, if a qualifying child was claimed on more than one tax return in the same tax year, advance payments have been stopped for those children.

See IRS FAQs for more information about how to reconcile payments on the 2021 income tax return.