The Internal Service Revenue (IRS) has shut down the expanded child tax credit portal for claiming child tax credit payments among non-filers, or families with low income or have no income to report. This temporary block will impact those who earn below $12,000 annually for individuals or $24,000 for couples.
Low-income families are not required by law to file their income tax returns. However, if they want to claim child tax credit payments, they will have to submit pertinent documents via the GetCTC website or app for non-filers. Currently, however, the site will not allow for sign-ups and submissions until May 2022. Instead, families are offered a sign-up to get updates about the tool.
According to Politico, the White House has asked the IRS to disable the portal temporarily to avoid more problems for this tax season, especially if actual tax filers will access the portal by mistake. The IRS will flag tax filers who used the portal and then filed their full tax returns.
"They would look like they were trying to file their taxes twice," Gene Sperling, a White House adviser said, referring to families who would submit documents through the Child Tax Credit portal as well as do their normal tax filings.
If that happens, the families would be "locked out" of their benefits until the issue has been sorted with IRS, which will take months.
More Delays for Low-Income Families
Consequently, however, the portal's sign-up will be up and running again after April 18, 2022. The White House official said that after the tax season, the government will be in an "all-out push" to distribute the money to low-income families.
However, the IRS said that these families may also do the normal route and file for a traditional tax return to specifically avail of the child tax credit payments, as well as other benefits like the Credit for Child and Dependent Care Expenses or the Recovery Rebate Credit. The decision, however, received criticism from David Newville, the director of Code For America, the company that developed the portal.
He said that the suspension will already delay the monetary assistance these families expect. He also said that non-filers will likely not proceed with going the traditional route as there is some learning curve to navigating the process of filing for actual tax returns. Thus, they will be forced to wait until May 2022 to receive the benefits.
Expanded Child Tax Credit Ended in 2021
The last of the six expanded monthly child tax credit payments were distributed in December 2021. However, Americans have yet to get the lump sum remainder of the payment, amounting to $1,800 or below per child, during this tax season.
Some families may have opted out of the monthly distribution and will receive the full benefits this April, which is about $3,600 per child. The biggest beneficiaries of this claim are the low-income families.
Though the Child Tax Credit has been around in different forms of payment since 1997, the expansion saw through many families navigating the pandemic with a cash boost. This enabled them to buy food, pay for bills, and support the needs of their kids, such as schooling and child care.
Reports cited that after the expanded monthly child tax credit was rolled back, more than 3.7 million kids have been relegated to poverty. Studies from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy have shown that the poverty rate spiked between December 2021 to January 2022.
