child tax credit

[rdh96]

if you opted to receive partial child tax payments last year, does that make your "federal credit" number on the final review of your taxes decrease by the amount you were already paid?

[DawnC · Accepted solution]

Yes.  The amount of Child Tax Credit you see on your return is the full amount of the credit, less the amount you received early through advance payments.    If you have 1 ten year-old child for example, your child tax credit is $3000.     If you opted not to take the advance payments, you will get the full credit of $3K.    If you did receive the advances of $1500, your credit on your tax return will only be $1500.   

The IRS distributed advances of your Child Tax Credit amount for this year, as payments last year. They estimated how much total Child Tax Credit you’re eligible for based on your last return, split that amount in half, and sent it in monthly payments. So now that you’re filing your taxes, you’ll get the remaining amount. While the credit you get on your return now might seem smaller, remember that you already got some of the credit as advance payments.

What is the Child Tax Credit?