The Internal Revenue Service said it is reviewing reports that some families received inaccurate numbers from the IRS about their child tax credit payments — a significant number that determines the amount of their tax refund. This year.
“We are still reviewing some of the information we have heard about review information that is not correct. We don’t think this is a widespread problem,” Ken Corbin, director of IRS taxpayer experience and commissioner of the agency’s payroll and investment division, said during a briefing. a press conference on Monday.
The notices Corbin was referring to are called “Letter 6419”. The IRS sends them and advises people to keep the document while they prepare their taxes. The letter specify the amount child tax credit advance payments that the IRS says it has already paid. here is a sample letter.
On Twitter TWTR, some tax experts say to themselves departure see inaccurate notice of Letter 6419. A Virginia tax professional once told MarketWatch that she had a client who received a letter saying she was paid $500 when she hadn’t received the money.
The IRS paid half of the enhanced child tax credit to families last year and it will pay the other half of the refund people receive when filing their 2021 taxes.
So what if the IRS version of what he’s already paid conflicts with what the parents say he received? We’re about to find out, as a tough tax season begins and the issue of potentially incorrect child tax credit notices emerges.
At a press conference Monday marking the start of the 2022 tax season, IRS officials acknowledged the potential problem but questioned its prevalence.
The letter is important because it’s the touchstone of what’s left to pay — and if the IRS determines it was overpaid to a household that earned too much income in 2021, it will reduce the refund to recover the money or include a balance owing.
The stakes are high because inaccuracies and potential discrepancies will likely extend the time it takes for the overdue IRS to get tax refunds to a family’s bank account. In December, the The IRS was still going through 6.7 million unprocessed 2020 tax returns and 2.6 million amended returns.
In December alone, the IRS sent child tax credit payments to families covering 61 million eligible children, according to the Treasury Department.
What to do with a potentially incorrect child tax credit number
If the numbers in the letter seem wrong to the taxpayer, Corbin said he can log on to his IRS.gov Account. Child tax credit amounts already paid should appear in the online account and Corbin said they “should match their actual experience”.
The numbers on the IRS.gov site should reflect the most recent payment information, Corbin said.
One possibility is that inaccurate notices appear for people who moved or changed bank accounts in December — rendering the check undeliverable — after the IRS generated the letter, Corbin said.
Ultimately, Corbin said he would “encourage taxpayers to file their return as accurately as possible.”
If taxpayers” look at the letter and they feel like their totals are different and they have the deposits or other information that shows this is the amount I should report, then they should report it “.
The child tax credit letter isn’t the only one people should be looking for, which means it’s not the only source of potential headaches. There’s also “letter 6475,” which documents the amount the IRS says it paid a household in the third round of stimulus checks.
Last tax season, the tax rules surrounding the unpaid portions of the first and second rounds of stimulus checks turned into minefields for a number of households. Getting an unpaid portion of a stimulus check meant claiming a “recovery rebate credit” on the 2020 tax return.
The agency’s backlog of approximately 6 million returns includes returns that require corrections to the Salvage Rebate Credit payment, the IRS noted.