How do I claim the second half of our Child Tax Credit?

[stephanie1168]

I have two children for 2021, ages 6 and 9. For 2020 our child tax credit was $4000 with these two kids. This year, TurboTax asked me questions about how much advance child tax credit we received ($3000- $250 per month, per child from July-December, for $500 per month and $3000 total). I answered these questions and the next questions about less common situations, and it moved me on. In the deductions and credits section, it is showing my Child Tax Credit as $3000. LESS than last year. It should be $6000 total, but it's not showing how to claim the other half of the credit (it should be $3000 per child based on the children's ages, for $6000 total!).

[xmasbaby0]

Federal>Deductions and Credits>You and Your Family>Child Tax Credit

The IRS is sending out letter 6419 to you.  It will show the amount of advance child tax credit that you received during 2021.  Enter the information from that letter carefully.   The remaining amount of CTC that you can receive will show up on line 28 of your 2021 Form 1040.

PREVIEW 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901539-how-do-i-preview-my-turbotax-online-return-before-filing

Click on Tax Tools on the left side of the screen. Click on Tools. Click on View Tax Summary. Click on Preview my 1040 on the left side of the screen.

NOTE:   The CTC is indeed a “credit” that can be applied toward any tax liability that you would otherwise have to pay as “tax due”  to the IRS.

And…..Ignore that “refund monitor.”  The software STARTS OFF by giving you the full amount of CTC.   When you enter the amounts from your letter, the software reconciles the amount you received with the amount you can still get IF you are eligible to get the other half.     You are NOT losing any of the credit; you are not being taxed on the credit.  Don’t get confused by the reconciled amount.   You got some of it already—-now you get the rest.

 If you received the advance payment and are NOT eligible to get the other half, then it will not show up on line 28.  (Such as in some cases where the wrong parent got the advance payments, etc.)

[NV2OR]

I am having the same issue. We are MFJ, we received $4500 total ($2250 each of us on the letters) for our 3 children. Looking on the tax history sheet (trying to figure out why my taxes owed were so high) I noticed that we don't have $4500 child tax credit showing up. 

We are within the income limits to have received the advanced payments. We are not divorced (so no splitting of payments and credits). We live in the U. S., our children are not 17. I can't see why we aren't receiving the remainder of the credit. 

My Federal Carryover worksheet has the correct amount of tax liability, but the information is not populated properly in the return.  I'm reading the turbotax PDF and the information seems to be matching the instructions, but it's not working out the way it should. 

[RaifH]

There are a couple of possibilities why you are not getting the remaining $4,500 of Child Tax Credit that you expect. One possibility is that your combined income is too high to receive the full Child Tax Credit. For married filing jointly, the credit begins to get reduced if your combined gross income is over $150,000.

Another possibility may be that one of your children is not entered into the system correctly, and is therefore not triggering the Child Tax Credit for that dependent. For each child in the Add a Dependent screens: 

1. Ensure that every child is marked for having lived with you for 6 months or more and that all that time was in the U.S.
2. Mark No to Did your child pay for more than half of their living expenses and other support?
3. When you enter your child's Social Security number, ensure that the box marked "Not valid for employment" is printed on your child's Social Security card is not checked.

Finally, you may want to check that the amount you received from July through December as advanced payments is entered correctly and matches what the IRS reported to you on Letter 6419.

1. In your TurboTax return search for Child Tax Credit and Continue.
2. Answer the question on the Let's start with where you spent the most time in 2021 screen and Continue.
3. On the Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments screen, answer Yes, enter the amount from your letter in the Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments box, and Continue.
   1. If your spouse also received payments, be sure to enter that amount as well as a combined total for both of you.
4. Answer the questions on the following screens, confirm your amount on the Let's recheck your advance Child Tax Credit payments screen, and Continue.

The Additional Child Tax Credit should be $4,500 if you and your children meet the requirements. To verify it is being reported on your 2021 return, you can preview your 1040:

1. Open or continue your return.
2. Select Tax Tools in the left menu (if you don't see this, select the menu icon in the upper-left corner).
3. With the Tax Tools menu open, you can then view your 1040 form: Select Tools. Next, select View Tax Summary in the pop-up, then Preview my 1040 in the left menu
4. Scroll down until you see Form 1040 Line 28 Refundable child tax credit or additional child tax credit from Schedule 8812. That line should be $4,500.

@NV2O

[xmasbaby0]

@NV2OR It is also possible that like a lot of other users, you are simply not seeing the CTC on your return because you are looking in the wrong place.   Look at your Form 1040.   Do you see $4500 on that line?   If you do, that is the "second half" of your CTC.

The remaining amount of CTC that you can receive will show up on line 28 of your 2021 Form 1040.

PREVIEW 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901539-how-do-i-preview-my-turbotax-online-return-before-filing

Click on Tax Tools on the left side of the screen. Click on Tools. Click on View Tax Summary. Click on Preview my 1040 on the left side of the screen.