ROGERS, Ark. — Arkansas parents will start receiving monthly child tax credit payments this week.
“It is such a big relief," Lori Lynn Tucker said. "Like many families, the past year and a half now have been a struggle."
The IRS child tax credit advance payments are part of the American Rescue Plan Covid Relief Bill. Parents like Lori Lynn Tucker and her husband plan on using the $850 a month they’ll receive for their 3 children to put their two youngest kids in daycare a few days a week. She says this will help ease that burden of childcare.
“It’s also enabling me to take some time to find more meaningful work. I’m a freelancer, instead of just taking a job for a paycheck, whether or not it’s something that I really enjoy. It’s really giving me space,” she said.
The payments are $300 a month for kids age five and younger and $250 for kids 6 to 17. Single parents who make $75,000 or less qualify, and couples who make $150,000 or less a year. Trish Walker with WestArk RSVP says some people may want to consider opting out of the monthly payments.
“If they are higher income and possibly owe taxes at the end of the year, they don’t need to receive this because they are going to wind up having to pay it back or part of it back,” Walker said.
These payments will come to you the same way you get your tax refunds, so Walker says it’s a good idea to log onto the IRS tax credit portal to make sure your bank account information or address is correct.
“I do highly recommend people to definitely keep track for when they start receiving it and how much they are going to receive because they will need to reconcile all this with their tax returns next year,” she said.
Even though the IRS says they will begin issuing the payments on Thursday (July 15), be patient because not everyone will get payments on that day.