Why am I not getting the 4000 credit for two young children that I received before.

[xmasbaby0]

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 2024 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.

Have you entered income from working in 2024?  If not,  you will not receive an income tax refund based on having dependent children.

  The maximum amount of the child tax credit is now $2000 per child; the refundable “additional child tax credit” amount is $1700.   In order to get that credit, you have to have income from working.  

Take the amount you earned from working.   Subtract $2500.   Multiply the rest by 15%.  That is the additional child tax credit per child that you can get—- up to the maximum of $1700 per child.   If the amount you earned from working was low, you will not get the full $1700 per child.

 If your child is older than 16 at the end of 2024, you do not get the CTC.  But you may still get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents instead.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/child-tax-credit/L2lNhfGDl_US_e...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/additional-child-tax-credit/L6x...

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/does-my-childdependent-qualify-for-the-child-tax-credit-or-the-credit-f...

And for the Earned Income Credit—-

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/qualifications-ea...

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/use-the-eitc-assistant

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf

Look at your 2024 Form 1040 to see the child-related credits you received

PREVIEW 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-return/preview-turbotax-online-retur...

Child Tax Credit line 19

Credit for Other Dependents line 19

Earned Income Credit line 27

Additional Child Tax Credit line 28

[Vanessa A]

Did your income increase?

 If so, did it increase to over $200,000 (or $400,000 if married filing jointly)  If so, then you would not be able to claim the credit as your income would be over the income limit to claim the full credit.

Did your income decrease?

The nonrefundable  Child Tax Credit will lower your tax liability down to $0.  So you must have a tax liability in order to claim it.  If you did not have at least a $4,000 tax liability, you would not be eligible for the entire credit, but you could be eligible for the Additional Child Tax Credit. 

After that, if you did not use it all up, you may still be able to get the Additional Child Tax Credit.  This will not be more than 15% of your Earned income minus $2,500.  So, if your Earned Income is $10,000, your Additional Child Tax Credit would not be more than $1,125.  There is also a maximum limit on the Additional Child Tax Credit of $1,700 per child. 

You can look at line 28 of your 1040 to see if you received the Additional Child Tax Credit. 

To see your 1040 select the following:

• Tools
• Tax Tools
• View Tax Summary
• Preview My 1040

You should also check your dependents to be sure they all qualify for the Child Tax Credit.  You can see this by looking at the Dependents section of your 1040 and seeing if there is a check mark by their name under the Child Tax Credit column.