I just entered the info of a hybrid car that I bought in 2018 and even though the software says that I am getting 4,502 credit I don't see my Tax due go down. Why?

[Texas Roger · Accepted solution]

Did you have a tax liability from taxable income for the credit to offset? If not, you can't get it. You can preview your 1040 to see if the credit is on your tax return. Click on Tax Tools then Tools then View Tax Summary. If you don't see it there, look back to the left and click on Preview My 1040. The credit would be shown on Schedule 3.

[richardsaracino1]

I have more than the credit on liability to offset the credit. In schedule 3 shows a credit of only $1,243 for the car, not $4,502. the other thing that calls my attention is that after estimated payments of $5,196 I still show a tax due of $2,386 (without adding the car) and after I add it, my tax due goes down to $2,343. Am I getting only $43 of credit? Should I start all my taxes from the beginning?

[Texas Roger]

As you look down the page on form 1040, what does it show for tax on line 11, total tax after credits on line 15, and amount on line 18?

[richardsaracino1]

Line 11 - $1,648
Line 15 - $10,934
Line 18 - $8,572

[richardsaracino1]

My question is this:
Is there a cap or limit to how much I can claim on credits? Because I had been playing with the software trying to understand why am I not getting the credit and I observed that if I delete the car, my tax due doesn't change much because my child credit goes up, but if I include the car on the tax then I get 25% of the $4,502 (Personal portion, 75% business use, 25% personal use) but at the same time my child credit goes down by a similar amount, for what my tax due only is affected by $43.00. I thought that my tax due was going to go down for the entire $4,502 and as I paid estimated payments I could get some money back. Am I totally wrong with this? or can it be a glitch on the software perhaps?
 

[Texas Roger]

Since you are referring to your EV credit as 25% personal and 75% business, you apparently have self employment income that you must pay self employment taxes on. Your credits cannot offset the self employment tax so you must pay it regardless of how much credit you are eligible for. You are apparently offsetting all of the tax liability from your taxable income (excluding your self employment tax) and that is why the child tax credit goes down when the EV credit is entered. You are probably getting a refund of all your estimated tax payments except for the amount of estimated tax payments needed to pay the self employment taxes. You may also be getting some additional child tax credit on line 17b to supplement the child tax credit you lost when entering the EV credit.

[richardsaracino1]

Thank you very much for helping me understand.