This topic centers on the early child tax credit and filing your 2021 taxes. In an effort in 2021by the US government they wanted to provide more families with additional cash in their pockets, they issued early child tax credits from July through December.  If you qualified, these monthly payments were advances on 50% of the credit.  In the past they would have been issued in the following calendar year when filing taxes So, when preparing your documents, be sure you have received a mailed document from the IRS, titled Letter 6419. If you are married, two letters will be issued. In short, on the form Box 1 is for the total dollar amount of money you received for the advance child tax credit payments over six months in 2021. Box 2, is the number of qualifying children that were taken into account when the advance payments were determined for 2021.  This is important as some families have new additions from when the credits were issued. So here’s a couple points of note - when it comes to filing and you have not received the letter, you can go the IRS website at the Child Tax Credit Update Portal - you can find the link in the podcast show notes Secondly, keep in mind that the amount you owe or receive each year may be different from what you're accustomed to.  https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-update-portal Website   https://www.somethingonmymind.net/ Merchandise https://www.somethingonmymind.net/shop Social Media  https://www.instagram.com/somm.podcast/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChec5qcZBcGkIhUU3belNDw https://www.tiktok.com/@somm.podcast?lang=en https://www.facebook.com/somm.podcast https://twitter.com/Somm_podcast