The American Rescue Plan Act of March 2021 changed a number of provisions for the child tax credit – these tax changes are temporary and only apply to the 2021 tax year.

• Raised the age of qualifying children to 17 from 16
• Increased the amount for certain taxpayers
• Made the credit fully refundable (meaning you can receive it even if you don’t owe the IRS)
• May be partially received in monthly cash payments

Trusts can be quite useful for protecting children. However, for some children, the trust serves an additional function: It protects the principal from being rapidly spent by a child. These trusts have a specific name—they are called "spendthrift" trusts.

A spendthrift trust allows a parent to protect a certain amount of inheritance. If you have a circumstance like this, it may be appropriate to transfer inheritance outright to some of your children and the same amount of property into a spendthrift trust for the "creative spender" child.

According to the Federal Reserve, Consumer installment credit rose $19.6 billion in May 2013 to $2.8 trillion — the biggest increase in a year. Consumer debt increased for credit cards, college tuition loans and cars loans.

Starting Monday, July 1, 2013, approximately 7 million students who will accept subsidized government loans will see their interest rates double to 6.8%. The higher rates that go into effect on July 1 only apply to new loans. These loans are generally awarded to only about a third of undergraduate students in financial need.

Undergraduates, who take out unsubsidized student loans from the government, have been paying the 6.8% rate since 2007.

If you are a student or have a student in your household starting a summer job, please remember:

1. Fill out a Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. Employers use this form to figure how much federal income tax to withhold from workers’ paychecks. If the student did not pay income taxes last year and does not expect to make enough to pay this year ($4,000 is probably a safe estimate), the student can file as “EXEMPT” from taxes and not have any withholding.