What’s New for 2021 When You File Your Taxes in Montana

Found out a couple of things when we filed our taxes, thought I'd share so you know what to expect. You may or may not already know that if you received stimulus money in 2020, it was not taxed, apparently it was considered a gift from the government. The only reason your tax person, or, if you're filing on your own, why one of your questions will ask if you received both rounds of stimulus money, is not to tax it, but to determine if you're still owed money. If you never did receive your stimulus money, for any variety of reasons, you will get it with your tax return. So there's the scoop on the stimulus payments.

This may not effect you, but it does us, if you have a teenager turning 17-years-old this year, you will not get the $1,400 child tax credit next year. I was under the impression you still get it for their 17th year, but no dice. We went home and joked that he would owe us $1400 next year and to start saving up. We also considered claiming the cat and the teen friend who eats at our house, but once again, no dice.

And finally, our tax dude said it would be a "couple weeks or so" to receive our refund for both state and federal. 2020 was, well, 2020, so we weren't at all surprised by the uncertainty or delay on a refund, we were just glad to be getting one and not having to pay this year.