In a little over two weeks, a lot of people will start getting advances on next year’s federal income tax refunds. Ali Braboy (BRAY-boy) with the North Central Illinois Council of Governments says it’s part of the stimulus package. The child tax credit went up and you can get some of it ahead of time.

If you filed a tax return in the last two years and you claimed children on it, you should get the money automatically. Anyone who has to make a change can go to “child tax credit dot gov” to find out how. Also, you should go there if you didn’t file tax returns for the last two years because you didn’t have to.