What is a schedule 8812 child tax credit form?

[ajblue17]

Why do I have to wait till 1/15/2020 to file with the schedule 8812 child tax credit form?

[VolvoGirl]

There's no hurry to file.  The IRS won't start taking returns until Jan 27.  So your return will just sit at Turbo Tax until then and you can't get it back if you need to make changes.

If you claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) the IRS cannot issue EITC and ACTC refunds before mid-February. The IRS expects most EITC/ACTC related refunds to be available in taxpayer bank accounts or on debit cards by the first week of March, if they chose direct deposit and there are no other issues with their tax return. Check Where’s My Refund for your personalized refund date.

And don't file early!  Last year (for 2018) the IRS put out some late changes and some early filers got tax due notices after they got their refund.  Also if you file in an early batch they get stuck in processing and might even take longer to get your refund.  

And You should wait because you might get a late W2 or 1099 in the mail.  They have until Jan 31 to send you the tax forms.  Or they may send you a corrected W2 or 1099 even later.

[Hal_Al]

The child tax credit  (CTC) is  limited to your tax liability. The CTC is a non-refundable credit and can only reduce your income tax to 0, It can not help you beyond eliminating your tax liability. But, if you have more than $2500 of earned income, some or all of it is usually given back to you thru the "Additional Child tax credit". That is, part of the CTC may be on line 18b of form 1040 (2019 version) instead of line 13a (lines 17 and 12 in 2018).   The  ACTC is calculated on form 8812 and  is basically 15% of your earned income over $2500. The ACTC is a maximum of $1400 per child (not $2000).