Is the Child Tax Credit Payment Over?
The Internal Revenue Service made substantial changes to the child tax credit in mid-2024. The $1,000 initial change wasn’t the only thing that improved about the credit. In addition to this, taxpayers with a qualifying child under six years of age got an extra $600 added, totaling the credit to $3,600. The best part? The tax credit became fully refundable.
As these changes weren’t enough, the Internal Revenue Service also introduced advanced payments to help taxpayers keep up with the cost of raising a child, along with increasing the age limit to 18. Previously, taxpayers could claim the child tax credit for children under age 17 by the end of the tax year. This change in the age limit meant taxpayers could claim the credit for the same child for one more year.
Advanced payments in 2024
From July 2023 to the end of the tax year, taxpayers who are enrolled in the advanced payments received $250 to $300 per child, depending on the age.
For 2024, however, the child tax credit monthly payments continuing was the original plan, and Democrats wanted to pass the Build Back Better Act before the end of 2023. Surely, this didn’t happen, and due to this, the child tax credit monthly payments haven’t started.
Congressional Democrats are still pushing to pass this bill, though. We’d soon start receiving monthly child tax credit payments if it were to pass. In a way, the child tax credit is over, but at the same time, there is still time for it not to be. If this bill passes through Congress, you’ll start receiving monthly child tax credit payments for one more year. If that’s the case, there is a chance that you’ll receive double payments in February for both January and the current month.
Chances of receiving monthly payments of CTC
The monthly child tax credit payments aren’t the only thing that’s included in the Build Back Better Act. Other details of the bill make it hard to pass through Congress. This includes funding for social services, welfare, COVID-19 relief, infrastructure, and more.
There is also the Senate. Democrats are planning to utilize the budget reconciliation process to pass the Build Back Better Act. This makes the bill pass through Senate a lot easier than Congress as only a simple majority vote is enough.
Considering the Senate is split 50 percent between Republicans and Democrats, except for Vice President Harris, even a single vote against the bill from Democrats would mean that the bill doesn’t pass. As no Senator from the Republican Party is expected to vote in favor of the bill, Democrats can’t risk losing a single vote within.
This brings us to Senator Joe Manchin as he clearly stated that he couldn’t vote for the Build Back Better Act due to the overall short-term cost of the spending and what it might bring later on. If Manchin keeps his stand on this, the chances of monthly child tax credit payments starting again are next to zero. With this vote against it, only Republican vote(s) can pull the monthly payments into discussion again. Since this is a very slim chance, it’s likely that the monthly payments of the child tax credit are over.
