My husband and I filled jointly and have 4 kids. To my understanding we should get back $2,000 for each child but it’s not showing that

[Vanessa · Accepted solution]

Not necessarily.  This is very dependent on your income.  To get the full $8,000 of child tax credit you would have to have $8,000 in tax liability on line 11 of your 1040. 

 Not everyone is eligible for the full Child Tax Credit or the full Additional Child Tax Credit.  Most all of the tax breaks and credits run on a bell curve, where it starts at the bottom, then the more kids you have (in relation to your income) the better the tax breaks are until it hits the peak and then the benefits decline dropping down the other side of the bell until there is no benefit at all for additional kids. 

If you look at line 11 of your 1040, your Child Tax Credit cannot exceed that number.  So, if your tax liability is only $3,000, that is the maximum Child Tax Credit you will be eligible for.  If it would have been zero, then you would not get any child tax credit.  This is a non-refundable Credits and will only reduce your tax liability to zero. The Child Tax Credit is shown on line 12a of your 1040. 

The Additional Child Tax Credit is refundable if you qualify for it. The refundable portion is approximately 15% of your Earned income along with a few other calculations. If you did receive it, you will find it on line 17 of your 1040. 

To see your 1040 click Tools>>.Tax Tools>>>View Tax Summary>>>Preview My 1040. 

[xmasbaby0]

There has been lots of hype in the news about the new $2000 Child Tax Credit.  Unfortunately, some people do not yet understand that it does not mean they will automatically receive $2000 per child just for filing a tax return.

Do not assume your refund will include $2000 per child for child tax credits.  It does not work that way.  The CTC is used first to reduce your tax liability to zero. After that, there is a refundable portion —up to $1400 — called the Additional Child Tax Credit that is calculated based on the amount of income you earned.  You do not necessarily get the maximum amount.  You get 15% of the amount of income earned above $2500--UP to the maximum amount possible.

If your child turned 17 in 2018, even on the last day of 2018, you do not get the child tax credit.  There are no exceptions to the rule.  You can still claim your child as a dependent.

Your child must have a Social Security number to get the CTC.  

If your child was born in 2018 you need to say the child lived with you for the WHOLE year.

If your child lived with you for less than half the year you cannot get CTC.

If you did not earn at least $2500 you cannot receive the child tax credit.  Beyond that amount the CTC you receive is affected by your tax liability and the amount you earned.  You might not get the full $2000 of CTC.

The child tax credit is reduced by $50 for every $1000 of AGI over these limits:

Married filing jointly                $400,000    (CTC disappears at $440,000)

Single, Head of Household, Married Filing Separately or qualifying widower               $200,000  (CTC disappears at $240,000)

Look at your 2018 tax return to see the credits you received:

Child tax credit line 12a

Additional Child Tax Credit line 17b   (schedule 8812) 

Credit for Other Dependents line 12a

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