To help families cover their children’s basic needs, Congress expanded the Child Tax Credit for 2021. The IRS will be sending out monthly checks to families with children, starting in July. Families can receive up to $300 a month for every child ages 0-5 and $250 a month for every child ages 6-17 living in their household. Families do not need any earnings to qualify. Families should file taxes by May 17 so they can get the Child Tax Credit, stimulus checks, and all the money that they and their children are owed.
Service providers and people working with families will play an important role in letting families know they are eligible and connecting them to local resources to help them file taxes. The Center for the Study of Social Policy, the Children’s Defense Fund, and other members of the Automatic Benefit for Children (ABC) Coalition have developed an outreach toolkit with some resources that could help you bring this up with families you work with and guide them to the services they need.
Action Is Needed Now!
You and your organization can share this information more broadly with your networks and on social media using the messaging below as a template, or by using this flyer. Please feel free to update the flyer with your organization’s branding, and to add information about local resources for families seeking free tax-filing help both before and after the May 17 deadline. We will update this folder with additional outreach materials, including the flyers in Spanish and other languages, as soon as they become available.
Sample tweets:
- Do you have children living in your household? File taxes before May 17 to begin receiving your monthly payments of the #ChildTaxCredit, starting in July! Get free filing help here https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/.
- If you don’t have income, you can still file taxes now to receive your #ChildTaxCredit—that’s $300 a month for every child 0-5 and $250 for every child 6-17, starting in July! File by May 17 & get free filing help here https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/
- Do you have kids? File your 2020 taxes by May 17 to receive the #ChildTaxCredit ($300 for every child 0-5 and $250 for every child 6-17, monthly)! You may also qualify for stimulus payments! Get free filing help here https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/.
For more information about the Child Tax Credit:
- CSSP: The American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit: Advancing Equity and Laying the Foundation for a Child Allowance
- CDF: Child Tax Credit: Frequently Asked Questions
Please reach out to elisa.minoff@cssp.org and Siri.anderson@cssp.org with any questions, or to share information about outreach activities in your communities.
Strengthening Families Webinar: Concrete Support at the Federal Level: What You Need to Know about the American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit
Join us for a webinar on Thursday, May 13, 2021 to learn about the benefit as well as steps we can take to ensure that this expanded benefit reaches the children who need it most, including children in Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and immigrant communities, and is made permanent. Learn more and register here.
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