Q. My only income is (non taxable) VA disability. I have wife & 3 kids plus adult disabled son. Can I file to claim child tax credits?
A. No.
The child tax credit (CTC) is limited to your tax liability. The CTC is a non-refundable credit and can only reduce your income tax to 0, It can not help you beyond eliminating your tax liability. So, if you have no taxable income and no federal income tax, you get no child tax credit.
If you have more than $2500 of earned income, some or all of the CTC can be claimed thru the "Additional Child tax credit". The ACTC is is basically 15% of your earned income over $2500. The ACTC is a maximum of $1700 (2024) per child, not $2000. But VA disability is not qualify as earned income, so you can not claim that.
Furthermore, to claim the refundable portion (Additional Child Tax Credit), the taxpayer's main home must have been in the United States for over half the tax year.
This answer has been verified for accuracy by an Intuit expert employee
