The Internal Revenue Service announced recently that it has finished issuing information letters to advance child tax credit (CTC) payment recipients and to recipients of the third round of the economic stimulus payments.
Providing a copy of these letters to your tax return preparer, if and when you receive them, will help ensure that your return is prepared accurately this year.
Letter 6419 for Advance CTC Payments
To help taxpayers reconcile all of the child tax credits to which they are entitled, the IRS began sending Letter 6419, starting in late December 2021 and continuing into January. The letter includes the total amount of advance payments sent in 2021 and the number of qualifying children used to calculate the advance payments.
The letter can be used to compare the advance CTC payments received with the amount that can properly be claimed on the 2021 tax return.
The letter contains important information that can make preparing your tax return much easier. In addition to the letter, you can also check the amount of payments sent by using the CTC Update Portal available on IRS.gov.
Since eligibility for advanced payments required living in the U.S. for more than half the tax year, it’s likely that many expats did not receive advanced payments and therefore the Letter 6419 is not relevant. If, however, you did receive payments, you should provide it to your preparer to assist in preparing your tax return.
Letter 6475 for 3rd Economic Stimulus Payment
The IRS will begin issuing Letter 6475 payment recipients in late January. This letter will help your preparer determine whether you are entitled to and should claim a credit for the stimulus payment amount (or an underpaid portion of the amount) on your tax year 2021 tax return.
It will also help differentiate this third payment from previous economic stimulus payments that were relevant for the filing of last year’s tax return. Letter 6475 only applies to the third round of payments that was issued starting in March 2021 and continued through December 2021.
Most eligible people already received the payment. However, people who are missing stimulus payments should review the information in the letter to determine their eligibility and whether they need to claim a credit for tax year 2021.
Like the advance CTC letter, Letter 6475 includes important information that can help your preparer quickly and accurately file your tax return.
