The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made 2021 Advance Child Tax Credit payments since July. There are reports, however, the September payment was short or did not come at all. As a result, the IRS released a statement last week about the issue.

“Last week, the IRS successfully delivered a third monthly round of approximately 35 million Child Tax Credits, totaling $15 billion. We have resolved a technical issue, which we estimate caused fewer than 2% of CTC recipients not to receive their September payment. These individuals will receive their payments as early as Friday by direct deposit or in the coming days for those receiving checks by mail.  The impacted group primarily included taxpayers who recently made an update on their bank account or address on the IRS Child Tax Credit Update Portal and affected payments to married filing jointly taxpayers where only one spouse made a bank or address change. We know people depend on receiving these payments on time and we apologize for the delay.

There are multiple reasons why people may be seeing a different amount than they expected. If only one spouse changed an address or bank account, the other spouse’s half could be going to the old address or bank account. In these instances, the full payment will still be distributed. Monthly payment amounts can also change depending on recently processed tax returns. We encourage people to check the IRS CTC Update Portal for the latest payment information.”

Internal Revenue Service

Online Tools

Indeed, the Service has several online tools you can use related to the Advance Child Tax Credit, which includes the CTC Update portal. You can download a complete list of the tools here.

These tools allow you to:

• Check your eligibility
• Register for child tax credit payments
• Verify your identity
• Unenroll
• Manage your bank account information
• View your payment history
• Update your mailing address
• Report updates to that could affect your payment amounts.

The next Advance Child Tax Credit payments are scheduled for October 15, November 15, and December 15. Meanwhile, you can take action now to make sure your payment arrives on time and hopefully in the right amount.

Some people may not be eligible for the child tax credit. Check your eligibility below.