2nd payment of advance child tax credit out

The second payment of the advance or increased child tax credit has already been issued.

Finance Division of Revenue and Taxation director Tracy Norita said Friday that they issued the payments on that day and those who have gone on the Department of Finance’s portal and have not received a payment yet should to look in their bank accounts or in their mailbox in the next couple of days as they might see a payment there.

“The portal is still open for submission of dependent information,” she said at press briefing Friday.

Last September, Finance distributed $882,000 in payments of the advance or increased tax credit through direct deposit and checks.

The CNMI is authorized to make monthly payments of the child tax credit to eligible families amounting to $250 or $300, depending on the age of the child. The payments will be up to December 2021.

Norita said if taxpayers had gone on the portal and submitted information and still did not get a payment, most likely there is an issue with their submissions.

She said she has seen several times where a taxpayer would go on the portal, submit the date of birth, but under the wrong social security number.

“As we’ve always mentioned in the past, please be careful when you’re submitting information. Make sure it’s as accurate as possible. Because we do have to validate that information prior to issuing the payment,” she said.

Norita said they also have a question for the advance or increased child tax credit around the calculation of the amount that the taxpayers are receiving.

“Because the payments began in August, what we do is base your payment on the remaining months. So if your first payment is in October, you take your total benefit, which is 50% of the credit,” she said.

Norita said a lot of people were expecting the whole $3,000 upfront.

“But again, it’s 50% of the credit divided by the remaining eligible months. So whatever is 50% of your credit, if your first payment is in October, the remaining will be divided amongst the remaining months: October, November, December,” she said.

Norita said taxpayers get the remaining benefit amount, the other 50%, when they file their tax return next year.

As to questions or inquiries regarding all other types of tax refunds, the director said their normal processing time is every other Friday that they allow their staff to enter and clear as many errors as they can. She said they ten do what they call a global matching and validation and then they batch a payment every other Friday.

“We also have our call center that is up and helping to inform taxpayers of what their issues are,” Norita said.