Smart Check and the Child Tax Credit

[SMOB2]

While doing a "Smart Check," it stops at requiring an "Advanced amount received" for Schedule 8812 for the child tax credit. I have not child tax credits. I have no dependents! I have indicated that I have not dependents. How do I get passed this? I tried entering 0.00, but that doesn't help. It tried deleting the form. It asks me if I want to remove it, I say Yes. But, it never removes it. I am using the download version on a MacBookPro.

[xmasbaby0]

Everyone has to answer whether they received advance child tax credit payments.   If you did not receive any of those payments between July and December you need to answer that you did not receive any payments.

There are so many scenarios with those payments---like divorced/never married parents who have issues over who received the payments, who claimed the children, etc. --- the software has no way of knowing if any of that involves you---so you have to answer the questions about it. 

Please follow these steps to indicate you did not receive any advanced payments:

1. Click on the "Search" on the top and type "Child tax credit"
2. Click on “Jump to Child Tax Credit”
3. Continue through the questions until the "Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments" screen and select "No".
4. Continue through the questions.

[SMOB2]

I was able to fix it by saying I wanted to see if I qualify for the tax credit and going through all those questions. Thank you.

[Critter-3]

EVERYONE  filing a tax return this year will have to visit the CTC section of the program even if they are not claiming any dependents on the 2021 return because the program cannot KNOW who got a CTC advance last year. 

This goes for the third stimulus payment as well  ... EVERYONE will need to answer those RRC questions.

And with the changes to the EIC more taxpayers will be eligible for it this year ... it is important to visit this credit as well. 

Failure to complete any of these sections will result in error messages when you get to the REVIEW tab and you cannot efile with those errors.   

So everyone needs to complete all sections of the TT interview and not skip the deductions & credits section this year even if they have in the past.