@ Child Tax Credit payments started today, 7/15

[smock]

Just checked my bank account and the IRS deposited the first child tax credit advanced payment! 

Slate's Ben Mathis-Lilley pointed out that a lot of kids can't read, so we should buy big-screen TVs with the money. 😆

slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/child-tax-credit-deposit-checks-tvs.html

Anyone else not opt out? And what are you planning to do with the monthly payments? We've got extra high expenses this summer thanks to summer camp, but we could afford to put it toward their 529s. Or save it for fall in case we need more COVID childcare.

[penguingrrl]

We didn’t opt out. It will help cover camp and aftercare costs now that I’m back at work full time but make very little money.

[seeyalater52]

We didn’t opt out. We will likely contribute to ROTH IRA but I havent gotten around to setting that up yet. Also daycare is expensive as fuck so we are still working on absorbing that cost into our budget so this really helps.

[icedcoffee]

I didn’t opt out because #lazy so I will save them and plan to return them in April. 😭

[smock]

Jul 15, 2021 17:03:30 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

We didn’t opt out. We will likely contribute to ROTH IRA but I havent gotten around to setting that up yet. Also daycare is expensive as fuck so we are still working on absorbing that cost into our budget so this really helps.

I'm counting down the days to our last preschool payment, which is less than two months away. Seven years of spending $12k-$36k each year on childcare, holy shit. And it's only gotten more expensive since our first started daycare in 2014. I'm glad the government is at least doing SOMETHING, but we need to do a whole lot more.

[smock]

Jul 15, 2021 17:05:13 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I didn’t opt out because #lazy so I will save them and plan to return them in April. 😭

Hopefully you won't have to return them! I just read the IRS is rolling out a site for people to enter their estimated 2020 earnings to change the monthly payment amount. And since it's only half of the total tax credit, you might not have to repay anything.

[plutosmoon]

I did not opt out, I'm using it to balance my summer budget for the first time in years. Summer care is brutal on my budget, I usually save all my dependent care reimbursements from the first half of the year and use them to pay for some of summer. This year I wasn't able to do that because covid daycare expenses were killing me. I'm hopeful it will work out that I don't have to repay the full amount, since I don't get the child tax credit in 2021 filings. I think the extra dependent care credit should even it out if I have to repay. I did just get a bigger than expected raise, so my careful plan to keep my agi down this year got a little messed up. I'm still pretty close to the 50k, so repayment should be minimal.

[dcn]

We didn’t opt out. For now putting it aside for a vacation and/or kid activities.

[morecoffeeplease]

We didn't opt out. We are using it to pay for my son's eye surgery copay!

[acr]

Stuck it in an account and we’ll see what taxes look like.

But really using to offset increase in housing costs from buying a new home.

[ajj]

Has anyone seen or heard anything about how to handle it when you trade off claiming the dependent with the other parent? Right now neither of us are getting it because he didn’t file for 2020 yet and I did, but it was my year not to claim DS.

[bronxgirl]

We didn't opt out. We are putting the money in my daughter's college fund.

[taratru]

We didn't opt out, and it'll be a nice cushion for the move.

[mandymay]

Jul 15, 2021 17:05:13 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I didn’t opt out because #lazy so I will save them and plan to return them in April. 😭

Same here!

[plutosmoon]

Jul 15, 2021 17:43:05 GMT -5 ajj said:

Has anyone seen or heard anything about how to handle it when you trade off claiming the dependent with the other parent? Right now neither of us are getting it because he didn’t file for 2020 yet and I did, but it was my year not to claim DS.

I alternate the credit with my ex. I claimed DD in 2020, he should claim her in 21. I did not opt out, and received my first payment today. I didn't opt out because there is some repayment protection offered to moderate income tax payers who have dependent changes, I fall into that group (less than 50k agi no repayment, under 75k is a phased out repayment amount). My understanding is he is out of luck for the advance but will be able to claim the full amount on his 2021 filing.

I'm not sure if you can update to add your son in the portal.

If I have to pay it back, I am still head of household, so I figure I can offset it with some of the higher dependent credit.

[Velar Fricative]

I’m just parking it in my savings earning like practically negative interest right now until we figure it out. We do not need to use it right now but I’m also concerned about it messing with our taxes next year. If it doesn’t we will just apply it towards next year’s summer camp.

[ellipses84]

Our income is really unpredictable this year and we are still in debt pay off mode, so I guess we’ll save some for tax time (to be put to retirement / college funds if we don’t have to pay it back) and use some for debt, while still living our lives and having some summer fun. 2 natural disasters, 2 in daycare and 1 pandemic over the past 5 years were not kind to our budget, but things are looking up and this helps a lot. We are having a staycation the week before school starts but we live in a tourist destination so it will cost $. That will be our celebration for ending daycare payments in a few weeks!!! Our district has free aftercare. We will still have high summer camp coats next summer.

[ellipses84]

For anyone wondering if you’ll have to pay some or all of it back, use this calculator. Use your expected AGI for 2021, rather than 2020 if you think there will be a big difference.

www.hrblock.com/child-tax-credit-calculator/

[sent]

I didn’t opt out and I fully expect to have to pay it back. I will throw it into our general savings for now which is invested somewhere, if I could only find the login.

[lea]

We didn’t opt out and will be using it to put towards DDs preschool and some other expenses. We just found out this week our monthly mortgage payment has increased a significant amount (thanks property tax reassessment during this market) so since that was unexpected, these extra payments will help cover the difference without putting too much of a strain on the rest of our budget.

[Deleted]

I dont even have kids, so have no dog in this fight, but i wish they'd stop calling it another stimulus payment.

[kershnic]

Summer vacation! Except I was going to spend that anyways… so I guess I’m saving it. But pretending it’s paying for my vacation makes me happier, lol.

[rupertpenny]

We got a reduced amount. I really don't think we're going to qualify based on 2021 income, but I mentioned opting out and my H didn't seem concerned? He's a tax person so I'm trying to trust him but it is making me nervous.

[macmars45]

Jul 15, 2021 17:52:32 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

We didn't opt out. We are putting the money in my daughter's college fund.

Same for my DS.

[memenee]

At what combined income should people have opted out?

Our income has increased a lot as of late as i have returned to work full time since being SAHM. We got the payment today but I think I likely need to opt out.

[mysteriouswife]

We already spent ours. 😭 DD braces and oral surgery cost a lot s’more than we planned. So we tossed it on her account.

[krystee]

We didn’t get any despite the calculators telling me we’d get about half with the income phaseouts. The site says no payments are pending. What the heck?!

[isabel]

Jul 15, 2021 20:30:24 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

We got a reduced amount. I really don't think we're going to qualify based on 2021 income, but I mentioned opting out and my H didn't seem concerned? He's a tax person so I'm trying to trust him but it is making me nervous.

Same. We seem to have gotten roughly half the total amount we'd be eligible for if we were under the income limit. I was sure there was no way we'd receive anything, so I didn't look into opting out. Now I'm not sure what to do about it.

[tarajane]

We did not opt out. Ours is going for swim lessons and flag football costs for the boys.

[katespade]

Jul 15, 2021 21:55:51 GMT -5 krystee said:

We didn’t get any despite the calculators telling me we’d get about half with the income phaseouts. The site says no payments are pending. What the heck?!

We didn’t get any, either, even though we should be qualified. We even got a letter from the IRS back in June saying that we qualify and telling us to keep an eye out for instructions in case we want to opt out (which we did not do, because we expect to qualify for 2021). Booooooo.