fbpx
Updated Tax Guides: Download your free 2024 Tax Guides for Churches and Ministers.
Updated Tax GuidesDownload your free 2024 Tax Guides for Churches and Ministers.
This article may contain references to PCA Retirement & Benefits (RBI), which has since been renamed Geneva Benefits Group. Learn more about our name change here.

I Would Unenroll from the 2021 Child Tax Credit Payment

A note from Rev. Don Aldin, CRPC®, Director of Retirement Readiness & Data/Technology at PCA Retirement and Benefits

Full disclosure – my children are too old to qualify for the 2021 Child Tax Credit payments. But if I qualified for receiving the credit starting in July, I wouldn’t take it. In fact, none of the financial planners on our Retirement Readiness team at PCA Retirement & Benefits would take it either.

Here’s why:

1. This is not like the stimulus checks we’ve received during 2020 and at the beginning of 2021. This is an advance on credits that you would normally receive when you file your taxes. In other words, this isn’t free money. This is effectively a reduction of your monthly tax withholdings.

2. If you get overpaid in child tax credits or your financial situation changes this year so that you have a higher tax bill on your 2021 taxes, you may have taxes due that you can’t afford to pay.

3. Financial planners (like us), CPAs, and tax professionals usually include any child tax credits you may receive when calculating the estimate for your payroll withholdings. Receiving the Child Tax Credit payments starting in July will invalidate those estimates.

We – the financial planners on the Retirement Readiness team – will (or would) unenroll from receiving the Child Tax Credit starting in July. We recommend that you unenroll as well. 

For more information from the IRS on unenrolling from the 2021 Child Tax Credit payments, visit  https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-update-portal. If your most recent federal tax filing status was “Married Filing Jointly,” then both you and your spouse need to complete the IRS unenrollment process in order to not receive the advance payment on the Child Tax Credit Payment.

 

Please visit our COVID-19 Resource page to find additional information on the 2021 Child Tax Credit and much more. This resource page provides the latest information on legislation impacting you and your churches.

At PCA Retirement & Benefits, we know you, we know how, and we care about you and your family. We are here to serve you. Call (678.825.1260) or email us (retirement@genevabenefits.org) to discuss unenrolling to stop advanced payments.

 

Geneva Benefits Group serves those who serve others, providing practical support for the financial, physical, and mental wellbeing of people who work in full-time ministry.

Geneva offers preparedness and peace of mind with solutions tailored to the needs of ministry leaders and staff.