Will you get a $250 or $300 child tax credit payment on Thursday? Calculate your total here

Eligible parents are scheduled to get their first advance child tax credit payment this Thursday — either by direct deposit or a paper check. If you have children under 6 years old, you may get up to $300 a month per child, or up to $250 per month for each kid aged 6 to 17. But the partial payments are just for this year — the other half of the child tax credit will come when you file your taxes in 2022. Dependents 18 to 24 years old could potentially qualify for one payment during tax season next year. 

If your most recent direct deposit information isn’t on file with the IRS, you’ll need to use one of its child tax credit portals to give the tax agency your details as soon as possible. Before July 15, you can double check if you qualify based on your family’s income and the ages of your children. If you’d prefer to get one large payout next year for the full amount (that’s up to $3,600 per kid), you might then choose to opt out of the monthly payment program. 

We’ll explain how the math and other requirements work in determining your family’s credit amount. The IRS has been sending out letters to parents to let them know whether they qualify. We can also help you sign up with the IRS to manage your child tax credit payments and tell you what to expect during tax season next year. This story gets routinely updated. 

Calculate your family’s total child tax credit payment

Start here by entering your adjusted gross income and number of kids. (Our calculator will not store or use your data.) The results are based on our current knowledge of the law and should be treated only as broad estimates; the IRS will determine the final amount. We suggest consulting a financial professional if you want a more personalized estimate.

The child tax credit math is somewhat involved this time around. Let’s say the above calculator says that you will receive $3,500 in monthly payments from July through December 2021. That means you should take that total and divide by six to see how much the IRS will send you each month in advance this year alone. 

Here are the basic rules. For parents of eligible children up to age 5, the IRS will pay up to $3,600, half as six advance monthly payments and half as a 2021 tax credit. For each child ages 6 through 17, the IRS will pay up to $3,000, divided in the same way this year and next. For dependents age 18 or full-time college students up through age 24, the IRS will make a one-time payment of $500 in 2022. 

If your AGI is $75,000 or less as a single filer, $112,500 as a head of household or $150,000 filing jointly, you’ll get the maximum amount. If your income is above the threshold for your filing status, your child tax credit payments will begin to phase out by $50 for every $1,000 of income over it. So, if the calculator above gives you a figure much less than $3,600 total for your 3-year-old, that probably means your household income is too high for the full payment. 

Timeline for child tax credit payments in 2021 and 2022

The first child tax credit payment starts on July 15 and continues through next year. Here’s a breakdown of when payments will be deposited and the maximum amount to expect based on the age brackets.

Timeline for child tax credit payments

Monthly	Maximum payment (newborn to 5)	Maximum payment (6 to 17)	Maximum payment (18 to 24)
July 15, 2021: First payment of the year	$300	$250	–
Aug. 13, 2021	$300	$250	–
Sept. 15, 2021	$300	$250	–
Oct. 15, 2021	$300	$250	–
Nov. 15, 2021	$300	$250	–
Dec. 15, 2021: Last payment of the year	$300	$250	–
April 2022: Second half of payment	$1,800	$1,500	$500

Eligibility requirements for dependents 

There are some specific rules regarding qualifications not just for parents and caregivers, but for the children, too. Here’s what to know about dependent qualifications for the child tax credit. 

As for your child aging out of a payment bracket, the amount of the credit depends on the age of a child on Dec. 31 this year. So if you have a 5-year-old turning 6 before the end of 2021, the total payment amount you could get for that child is $3,000. If you have a 17-year-old who turns 18 before the end of 2021, you would receive $500 total for that dependent instead of $3,000. If you have a dependent who’s a full-time college student and turns 25 this year, you won’t receive any payment for that dependent.

Eligibility details for new parents

Children born in 2021 make you eligible for the 2021 tax credit of $3,600 per child. (That’s up to $7,200 for twins.) This is on top of payments for any other qualified child dependents you claim. Here’s our guide for parents of 2021 babies, including what parents of adopted infants should know.

Eligibility details for parents who don’t typically file taxes 

The IRS will automatically make the payments for those who filed their 2020 tax return or claimed dependents on their 2019 tax return. If you didn’t submit your tax return, the IRS won’t know to send you a payment (and also won’t know if you’ve gained dependents since the last tax filing).

If you’re a nonfiler and didn’t file a tax return this year and don’t plan to, the IRS has come up with an alternative. A new “Non-filer Sign-up tool” allows families who don’t file taxes to submit an electronic form to let the IRS know how many kids they have and their ages — including babies born in 2020 and 2021 — so they can get the correct payment amount. 

While the tool is intended to help low-income families enroll in the program, it has been criticized for not being entirely user-friendly. For example, it works better on a computer than a mobile device, and requires that you have access to an email address and understand English. 

Parents can unenroll from this year’s monthly payments

If you’d rather get your 2021 child tax credit money as one large payment, you can unenroll from the monthly payments now that the IRS has opened its online portal. That means that instead of receiving $300 per month for your 3-year-old (and the remainder of your money in 2022, for example), you’d wait until you filed your taxes in 2022 to claim the full $3,600.

To stop the advance payments, you need to unenroll three days before the first Thursday of the month. So if you want to opt out of that second payment on Aug. 13, you’ll need to do so before the Aug. 2 deadline. 

Later on, that same IRS portal will allow people to check on the status of their payments and make updates to their information. Here’s the monthly schedule to unenroll. 

Child tax credit unenrollment deadline schedule

Payment month	Unenrollment deadline	Payment date
July	June 28, 2021	July 15, 2021
August	Aug. 2, 2021	Aug. 13, 2021
September	Aug. 30, 2021	Sept. 15, 2021
October	Oct. 4, 2021	Oct. 15, 2021
November	Nov. 1, 2021	Nov. 15, 2021
December	Nov. 29, 2021	Dec. 15, 2021

In shared-custody situations, only one parent is eligible 

If you share custody, only one parent can claim the monthly advance child tax credit payments. This may be a surprise for parents that were separated, but both received one payment each for their child. Parents should also be careful when claiming the child tax credit money because if the child is filed incorrectly, parents may have to repay some or all of the money. 

How to avoid a potential IRS overpayment

Your family’s eligibility is determined in large part by your adjusted gross income. So what happens if you get a new job or start making more money in 2021? What happens if the payments have already gone out and you spent the money?

The IRS has a plan for this: You’ll use the new Child Tax Credit Update Portal to update your information when that happens. If you need to make an adjustment, the IRS will lower the payment amounts you’d receive if your new income reaches the phaseout level, according to Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at Tax Foundation.

If you wait until 2022 to update your information when you file your taxes and you continue to receive the full amount based on your lower income, you will have to return the excess money on your 2021 tax return next spring, or else accept a smaller 2021 refund or owe more in taxes. Here’s more information on how the child tax credit affects your taxes.