I can’t tell if you’re being facetious/sarcastic, or not. Are the credits really shoved down their throats? Are taxpayers forced to take credits that would harm them?
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I.e., if you qualify, you’ll get an advance credit of up to $300/mo, probably the same way as the pandemic assistances/stimuli – via direct deposit or debit card, depending on whether you owed or got a refund on your most-recently processed federal tax return.
I’m being partially sarcastic. I’m sure plenty of people may benefit from getting these payments sooner rather than later. But the few who pay and understand taxes and can adjust withholdings are forced to take the credits they don’t really need (because they can simply “take” them with reduced withholdings).
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I’m usually adjusting my withholding so that I don’t give the IRS a free loan with my money and end up owing a small amount in April (just under $1k or so). When we had 3 child tax credits worth about $6k, getting 50% of these credits early would mean I underpaid my taxes by $3k more than usual and could get hit with penalty. Now according to the law, you can opt out of receiving the 50% of your child tax credits early so maybe I would do that to keep things simple. But unless there is a provision I missed, I think it could easily trip some taxpayers who don’t realize the consequences of getting these credits early.
The other more simple case is simply households getting used to the extra money and ending up owing money on their 2021 taxes rather than getting their traditional refund. Nasty surprise even if they avoid any tax underpayment penalty.
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Holy cow! All I got was an extra deduction … might’ve had more chillens if they would’ve paid me. 
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Maybe you can adopt someone on this site 
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My son also got $1400 in error. But it’s a long story.
- We didn’t put him on our tax return because it will give us $0 benefit.
- He filed with turbotax and answered one question wrong (can you be claimed as dependent?) He understood it as “are you claimed as a dependent?”).
- He got $1800.
- We realized this error and filed and 1040X and returned $1800.
- But 1040X takes a few months to be processed.
- Before it is processed, he got $1400 deposit.
Now, what to do in this case?
My son is a full time college student and did have W2 income in year 2020.
The ship has sailed at this point, but you probably should’ve just let it be. A college aged adult with income isn’t going to raise a flag as being a dependent, and if he happened to get audited to the point it was uncovered he had a legit misunderstanding.
I’d say at this point all you can do is wait, and be prepared to return the $1400 if anyone ever comes asking for it.
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I agree with @glitch99. I wouldn’t have advised you to file the 1040X. Some college aged kids are dependents and some aren’t. There wouldn’t have been any red flags on his return for claiming himself. But I understand your concern since 2019 and 2020 are the only years where it’s more likely a bigger benefit for parents not to claim older kids as dependents because of the “stimulus” payments. However, I don’t think the IRS will be doing much enforcement to take money back from the millions of young adults that would have, in any other non-covid years, been claimed as dependents, but weren’t for “stimulus” purposes. I could be wrong. But I just don’t see it happening.
Kudos to you and your kid for doing the most honest thing though.
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I’m reminded of the Will Rogers/Groucho comment of not wanting to adopt anyone who would have me as a parent (very loosely paraphrased, but with the same intent).
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Agree
Strongly agree
I myself am remaining quiet. If they come for their $1400, I will surrender the money readily, quickly, and without protest. But I certainly will not be mentioning that $1400 on any of my tax filings.
Keep your head down. Let it be. Let sleeping dogs lie.
And so they did:
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