Have you claimed the Child Tax Credit?
This year the child tax credit has been increased. The reason for the increase is mainly due to the increased cost to raise children and to stimulate the economy. This credit is separate from your personal child exemption that you normally take and is a great way to get some money back.
The credit is limited to 1,000.00 per qualifying child you have residing in the U.S and must be under 17 before December 31 and must be living with you more that 6 months during the year.
This all depends on where you quality for a refund or not. For this tax year the tax credit has been dropped to 3000.00. So as long as you have an income (AGI) greater than 3000.00 you meet the first test in qualifying for the refund.
The next test is based on your AGI (adjusted gross income). If your AGI is greater than the following conditions then your child tax credit will be reduced.
* Married filing jointly up to $110,000.00 * Single, qualifying widow(er), or head of household up to $75,000.00 * Married filing separately up to $55,000.00
If you AGI exceed the above conditions you may still get the credit but you must reduce the credit by 50.00 dollars for every 1,000.00 dollars over the above limits. For example if your income is 140,000.00 you would reduce you credit by 3 times 50.00 or 150.00.
On the other hand if after you take the child tax credits it must never cause you tax to drop below zero. In addition if you are not able to take the full child tax credit you may be eligible for the additional child tax credit.
The additional child tax credit is provided for tax payers that may not get the full tax credit. Unlike the child tax credit you can get a refund even if your taxes are zero.
Michael Flum has more tax information. Get more of it at Federal Tax information