Child Tax Credit 2021: Payments to be disbursed starting July 15 — here's when the money will land

The federal Child Tax Credit is slated to begin its first monthly cash payments on July 15, when the IRS will begin disbursing checks to eligible families with children ages 17 or younger. The new enhanced credit is part of a government effort to use the tax code to help low- and moderate-income families weather the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. 

The tax system "has become a machine for social change," said Mark Steber, Jackson Hewitt's chief tax information officer. "The pandemic supersized that." The enhanced Child Tax Credit (CTC) is the latest use of the tax code to deliver money into millions of household bank accounts, following three rounds of direct stimulus checks that were, in fact, tax rebates. President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan authorized an expansion of the CTC, which has existed since the late 1990s, to more quickly provide monthly checks to low- and moderate-income households.