Assuming your son is a U.S. citizen and did not provide more than half of his own financial support, here are the other rules for the Child Tax Credit:
- For the 2025 tax year, a qualifying child must be 16 or younger at the end of the year. If your son turned 17 on or before December 31, 2025, he automatically ages out of the Child Tax Credit and into the $500 Credit for Other Dependents.
- Your son must have a valid Social Security Number issued before the due date of your return. If he has an ITIN or ATIN, the software will only grant the $500 credit.
- Under the new tax legislation passed in 2025, the taxpayer claiming the credit (or at least one spouse if filing jointly) must also have a valid SSN. If the primary taxpayer is filing with an ITIN, the family is disqualified from the Child Tax Credit, even if the child has a valid SSN.
- Your son must have lived with you for more than half of the year (more than 6 months).
Here is how to check and correct your entries:
- Select My Info from the left-hand menu.
- Scroll down to your dependents list and select Edit next to your son's name.
- Verify his Date of birth. Ensure the year entered correctly calculates his age as 16 or younger for the 2025 tax year.
- Continue to the Social Security Number screen. Ensure you did not accidentally check a box stating his SSN is "not valid for employment."
- Continue to the residency question. Verify you selected that he lived with you for 7 months or more (or the whole year).
- Select Continue to save any changes.
- Once corrected, TurboTax will automatically update your return and recalculate Schedule 8812 to reflect the full Child Tax Credit.
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