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The expanded little one tax credit score, and month-to-month funds that got here with it, expired final 12 months. However eligible Puerto Rico residents can nonetheless declare the sums of as much as $3,600 per little one.
Now, Code for America, a non-profit tech group, is making it doable for Puerto Rico residents to make use of its free, mobile-friendly on-line sign-up portal — GetCTC — to allow them to entry the credit score.
The portal, which is out there in Spanish and English, launched on Thursday in collaboration with the White Home and the U.S. Division of the Treasury.
The launch follows latest steerage issued by the IRS in Might that permits most Puerto Rico residents to file for the kid tax credit score with a simplified return, even when they weren’t required to file in 2021.
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How Puerto Rico residents can declare the credit score
As a result of the credit score is totally refundable beneath the American Rescue Plan, Puerto Rico residents can declare the total credit score in the event that they don’t have any earnings or paid no Social Safety taxes, based on the IRS.
The GetCTC internet software lets folks enter primary private data wanted to say the kid tax credit score, resembling their title, Social Safety quantity, variety of youngsters and deal with.
“We anticipate folks to have the ability to get by it normally in about 10 to fifteen minutes on a cell phone,” mentioned Gabriel Zucker, affiliate coverage director for tax advantages at Code for America.
“It is a actually streamlined focused course of,” he mentioned.
Increasing entry in Puerto Rico to the kid tax credit score
The kid tax credit score funds are based mostly on the 2021 American Rescue Plan. That features $3,600 per little one age 5 or beneath as of the top of 2021, in addition to $3,000 per little one ages 6 by 17 as of the top of final 12 months.
Whereas the American Rescue Plan made the kid tax credit score extra beneficiant for thousands and thousands of Individuals, it additionally dramatically expanded Puerto Ricans’ entry to the credit score, based on Zucker.
Earlier than the non permanent laws, Puerto Ricans needed to have three youngsters to qualify for the credit score, which meant about 90% of households couldn’t obtain it, Zucker mentioned.
“It has been a very long time that a few of the key social helps that we offer to households state aspect haven’t been out there or haven’t been out there to households in the identical method on the island,” Zucker mentioned.
Eligible households in Puerto Rico have till April 15, 2025 to say the kid tax credit score.
That is in line with IRS tax guidelines, which let folks declare credit for as much as a number of years, Zucker mentioned.
A separate GetCTC software can also be at present open to mainland U.S. residents who might have missed out on the kid tax credit score or restoration rebate credit score of as much as $1,400 per individual.
The IRS supplies extra data on its web site on necessities to qualify for the kid tax credit score for Puerto Rico residents and different U.S. residents.
