topic My dependents are not being deducted in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

My dependents are not being deducted

susansuzzan — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:03:48 GMT

My return is wrong my dependents are not being deducted

Re: My dependents are not being deducted

Hal_Al — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 11:53:17 GMT

There is no deduction for dependents. Exemptions (deductible amount) was eliminated starting in 2018. Instead, you get a tax credit for each dependent, the child tax credit for children under 17 (under 18 for 2021 only) and the "Other Dependent Credit" for all others. The Other Dependent Credit is a maximum of $500 and is non refundable (you must have a tax liability to offset).

The child tax credit (CTC) is also 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. But, if you have more than $2500 of earned income, some or all of it is usually given back to you thru the "Additional Child tax credit". That is, part of the CTC may be on line 28 of form 1040 (2021 & 2022) instead of line 19. The ACTC is calculated on form 8812 and is basically 15% of your earned income over $2500. The ACTC is a maximum of $1500 per child (not $2000).

Re: My dependents are not being deducted

xmasbaby0 — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 13:44:00 GMT

Did you enter income earned from working?

If you did not work in 2022, you will not receive an income tax refund based on having dependent children.

The rules for getting the child tax credit on a 2021 tax return and now on a 2022 return are very different. For 2021 you could get $3600 for a child under 6 or $3000 for a child between 6 and 17 even if you had no income/did not work. That is NOT the way it will work for your 2022 tax return. The “old” rules are back. The maximum amount of the child tax credit is now $2000; the refundable “additional child tax credit” amount is $1500. In order to get that credit, you have to have income from working. The credit is calculated based on the amount you earned above $2500 multiplied by 15%, up to the full $1500. If your child is older than 16 at the end of 2022, you do not get the CTC. But you may still get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents instead.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1900923-what-is-the-child-tax-credit

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/does-my-childdependent-qualify-for-the-child-tax-credit-or-the-credit-for-other-dependents

And for the Earned Income Credit—-the rules are back to the “old” rules—

those under 25 and over 65 without children are not eligible as they were uniquely in 2021. And you cannot use your income from any earlier tax year to get the EIC for a 2022 return. EIC for 2022 will be based on the income you earned by working in 2022.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899157-what-are-the-qualifications-for-the-earned-income-credit-eic-or-eitc

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/use-the-eitc-assistant

AND….If you have children but had no income, it raises the question of how you and the children were supported. There may be another tax-paying adult who can claim you and/or the children as dependents.