Deductions & credits

If you are reporting $0, your dependents are not qualifying children or the advance payments have offset the Child Tax Credit.

For tax year 2021, a qualifying child is an individual who does not turn 18 before January 1, 2022, and who satisfies the following conditions:

• The individual is the taxpayer’s son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother, half-sister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, a grandchild, niece, or nephew).
• The individual does not provide more than one-half of his or her own support during 2021.
• The individual lives with the taxpayer for more than one-half of tax year 2021.
• The individual is properly claimed as the taxpayer’s dependent.
• The individual does not file a joint return with the individual’s spouse for tax year 2021 or files it only to claim a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax paid.
• The individual was a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien.

The Child Tax Credit reported on line 28 of the Federal 1040 tax return is computed in two steps: 

• First, you are given full credit for the Child Tax Credit based upon your 2021 income and the dependent information entered into your tax return, then 
• Second, the benefit of the credit is reduced by the amount of any advance payments reported under Federal / Deductions & Credits / Your tax breaks / Advance payments, Child and Other Dependent Tax Credits at the screen Tell us about any Advance Child Tax Credit payments.

You are able to view the Child Tax Credit on line 28 of the Federal 1040 under Tax Tools / Tools / View Tax Summary / Preview my 1040 after each step.

Enter the information to generate the Child Tax Credit, then review line 28 of the Federal 1040 to see whether you have been given credit for the proper amount.

Then report the Advance Child Tax Credit payments received and reported on your IRS Letter 6419.

Review line 28 of the Federal 1040 to see whether you have been given credit for the proper amount.

This way you will be able to tell which step (if either) is incorrectly being reported on line 28 of the Federal 1040.

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