Is line 23 equal to line 24?
What is on line 16? If line 16 is $0, then your are not getting the credit for your son because you did not have a tax liability for the Other Dependent credit to reduce. When you have a nonrefundable credits, if you do not have taxes to reduce you cannot get the credit.
Your SE tax which is 15.3% of your income is your Medicare and Social Security tax that you pay as an independent contractor or sole proprietor is not able to be reduced by credits as these payments go to SSA and Medicare instead of in the lump sum pot with the rest of your taxes. If you were an employee, then your SS and Medicare taxes would be half of the 15.3% because your employer would be paying the other half, but since you don't have an employer to pay the other half, you have to pay the entire amount.
You do get a 50% credit for paying this, but the amount on line 23 cannot be reduced by credits for your dependents.
Self Employment Taxes
The Self Employment Tax
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