IRS rejected child tax credit for some families with immigrant spouse

WASHINGTON >> Samantha Alonso-Campos is still waiting for the $1,100 a month the IRS told her she should expect for her four children as an advance child tax credit payment.

Lara Garcia didn’t get the $850 she was promised for her three children.

And Jessie Alarcon, who has two children, has yet to receive the $550 tax credit for her family.

Under the American Rescue Plan, eligible families are entitled to monthly payments of up to $300 for each child 5 and under and up to $250 for each child 6 to 17.

Many families were erroneously left out of the first batch of child tax credit payments on July 15, apparently for one reason: They are “mixed status,” meaning that one spouse has a different citizenship or immigration status than the other. For example, one spouse may be a U.S. citizen, the other a legal permanent resident or green-card holder. In other cases, a spouse might be undocumented but still paying taxes.

In a statement, the agency acknowledged the complaints that eligible children were not receiving payments.

“The IRS is aware some taxpayers who filed tax returns with ITIN numbers did not receive their child tax credit payment for July,” the IRS said. “We have worked expeditiously to correct this issue and these taxpayers will start receiving payments in August. All impacted taxpayers will receive their July payment.”

This isn’t the first time these families have felt neglected. When the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, became law in March of last year, it excluded married couples filing joint returns unless both spouses had Social Security numbers valid for employment or at least one spouse was a member of the military.

Those first stimulus payments included up to $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for couples, plus $500 for each dependent child.

Complaints from mixed-status families and community organizers resulted in a policy reversal, and families in which one taxpayer had a Social Security number valid for employment were made eligible for the first round of stimulus payments, as well as the second and third rounds of payments. However, undocumented people remained ineligible for payments.

Mixed-status families are eligible to receive the monthly advance child tax credit payments as long as everyone claiming the children as dependents has a Social Security number or an IRS-issued Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). They will receive the payments only if they used their Social Security number or ITIN when they filed a 2019 or 2020 tax return, or when they entered information into the nonfiler tool on irs.gov. Each qualifying child has to have a Social Security number that is valid for employment in the United States.

Many undocumented immigrants and some noncitizens aren’t eligible for Social Security numbers, but they can get a ITIN, which is used to file a return and pay taxes.

“We haven’t received it because there’s some kind of glitch in the IRS system, I guess,” said Alonso-Campos, who is a U.S. citizen. She lives in Woodbridge, Va., with her Mexican-born husband, who is in the process of getting a green card, and four children, ages 12, 6, 5 and 2. “They’re saying that we’re not eligible for it on the website, even though I received an IRS letter stating that I would be eligible for it.”