How do I amend my taxes to claim child tax credit in Texas? My children who are under 17 were added under credit for other dependents instead of child tax credit by error

[rluhia]

We should qualify for it.  We are married filing jointly under $400,000. Since 2019 I've discovered just now they are marked under the wrong category.  What do I do to correct this?? What did I input wrong?

[xmasbaby0]

The fact that you are in TX has no bearing.   Did you enter Social Security numbers for the children?  They must have SSN's in order to get the child tax credit.  If they only had ITIN's you can get the $500 credit for other dependents.  The CTC is also affected by their ages.  For every year except for 2021, the child has to be under the age of 17.  For 2021 ONLY the rule was under 18.  For 2022,  it goes back to under 17 to get the CTC.

Some things to look at when you review your past returns

Make sure you have entered your child as a dependent in My Info, and that you have entered the child's Social Security number.    Careful— do not say that your child’s SSN is not valid for employment.  If your child was born in 2022   (or the tax year in question )    make sure you said he lived with you the whole year.  There is an oddly worded question that asks if the child paid over half their own support.  Say NO to that question.

[DawnC]

Here are the instructions to amend your previous tax returns.    If you have children, you might qualify for either the Child Tax Credit or the Credit for Other Dependents.  While they’re similar, there are some differences in eligibility.   This Help Article explains the difference between the 2 and also has more information on both credits.   Go back and review your answers to the dependent questions.   And view your tax return before submitting it this year to ensure you are receiving the correct credit.  

[rluhia]

Yes that's the weird thing. Their SSN's are entered next to their names on the 1040 but it's checked as credit for other dependents not cold tax credit for both.  Maybe I accidentally chose yes for the last question you mentioned about paying half of their expenses.  I might have thought it said did you pay half of their expenses. I seen you can't go back and amend till Feb 16th. We have never amended our taxes but in noticing this year they were checked as credit for other dependents I went back all the way to 2019 and it was the same for those years as well so I've done something wrong and possibly that was it with the question you mentioned! How easy is it to amend this? I'm so frustrated! In 2018 we used h&r and our oldest was correctly checked under child tax credit so I've obviously inputted some wrong information some where!

[ThomasM125]

It's not difficult to amend your return. You will see an option on your home page to do that. You just need to go back in the program and change the answers to questions you got wrong the first time. You need to provide an explanation as to why you are amending the return. You can then e-file your amended return like you may have done with the original return. You can go back three years from the due date of the return to amend it for a refund.