It has been mentioned that the child tax credit program is often the subject of several fraudulent people claiming your dependent before you go out and do so yourself. There are certain steps that one could take to stop this from happening- and there are quite a few procedures one needs to follow. This usually happens to individuals when they end up e-filing their return and then get a message that clearly implies that someone else has claimed one’s dependent from them.
In this case, they would need to verify that they had entered the correct information about the dependents that they had claimed. Interestingly, there are certain cases in which the authentic individual had entered incorrect information about their dependent. In this situation, they would need to input the incorrect name or number that was added.
How To Protect Yourself From Child Tax Credit Fraud?
In order to claim one’s dependent and avoid any form of child tax credit fraud, one would have to file a paper return once they have confirmed that they are eligible to claim their dependent. One should also prepare for their paper tax return, claim their dependent, and then mail the completed tax return to the IRS. The refund is going to get delayed while the IRS keeps investigating one’s case, and then prove that the dependent was fraudulently claimed by another individual.
In order to prevent child tax credit fraud, one would also need to prove that they are entitled to claim the dependent by providing a comprehensive list of documents that prove that the dependent is under one’s care. Finally, they would need to answer when the IRS inevitably decides to contact the person- and then comply with every request put within reason.
