topic Why is it telling me I don’t qualify for child tax credit for my children? in Deductions & credits

Why is it telling me I don’t qualify for child tax credit for my children?

Pitbullsnskulls22 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:52:30 GMT

Re: Why is it telling me I don’t qualify for child tax credit for my children?

xmasbaby0 — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 05:28:11 GMT

We cannot see your tax return so we do not know what you have entered. Have you entered income you earned from working? Are you claiming qualified children dependents younger than the age of 17? Have you entered their Social Security numbers?

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

Re: Why is it telling me I don’t qualify for child tax credit for my children?

Hal_Al — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 14:40:00 GMT

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. 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).