@NCperson,
The Dinkytown calculator doesn't include the Child Tax Credit, so it is a bit useless for me. It is strange that both the Intuit and efile tax calculators gives wrong, and different, results.
I have always maxed out my IRA to Roth conversion to increase my (unearned) income to take take full advantage of the $4,000 Tax Credit. The exception was in 2021when the Child Tax Credit was fully refundable, regardless of income and if it was earned or not. For that year, I preferred to take the refund.
I wasn't sure if the rules for 2022 vs years prior to 2021 had changed, so that part of it ($1,500/child) was still fully refundable. However, from your explanation, I now understand that it is only refundable if we have earned income (which we don't).
Thus, I will do the same thing as I have done every year (except for 2021): Optimize my IRA to Roth conversion to take full advantage of the $4,000 Tax credit (and not pay any tax). I just use a simple spreadsheet to calculate.
