The government is getting ready to pay you $16,000 for child care and babysitting expenses. This is money on top of the $3,600 child tax credit payment per qualified dependents. Properly filing your papers and claiming your benefits can get you a total of $19,600 child support money.

The government knows that taking care of your children in these difficult times can incur a lot of payments, particularly on babysitting services. Since its approval in March 2020, the new stimulus law plans to provide you with up to $16,000 child care expenses for multiple children.

How to Get Up to $16,000

The money you can receive depends on a lot of different factors. The first is on how many children or dependents do you have. One child maxes up to $8,000 tax credits. Two or more children max out at $16000 per household.

Another factor is the filing parent or guardian and their household adjusted gross income (AGI). Their total AGI needs to be earning less than $125,000. For families who exceed the amount, tax credits will phase out the money up to 50 percent. The credit phases lower to 20 percent for families earning at $18,300. Lastly, families earning $438,000 or more will receive zero child care tax credit benefits.

For example, you earn less than $12,500 but have two children. You can receive the total $16,000 child tax credit payments. However, if you make $130,000, 50 percent of the value will phase out and you can only receive up to $8,000. So the higher your income gets, the smaller amount of support you'll receive.

Children and dependents also have their own eligibility requirements. Cnet reported that:

• Children must be under age 13
• They are unable to care for themselves (being impaired, disabled, or other related circumstances) and have lived with the filer for more than half a year.
• Physically or mentally incapable of self-care
• Has a tax identification number like Social Security Number

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Note, however, that you can only receive these child tax credit benefits after filing your 2021 taxes next year. By then, the government might require from you a detailed account of all your child care expenses, including receipts of daycare services or after-school programs you had to pay for before releasing the money to you.

It's never too early to get started on these documents. The IRS has these printable forms available on their website for you to fill up. You would need to complete Form 2441 and attach it to your Form 1040 tax return. Use Form W-10 to request for the necessary information from your child care service providers.

Take advantage of the situation! While preparing for your child care tax credit benefits, you could also do these steps to get your child tax credit as a one-time lump payment of $3,600 per eligible child.

The government is sending out payments, so it is better to stay up to date with the process to get full assistance amid the pandemic.

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