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You may be answering your own question when you state, "I didn't work that much last year." The refundable child-related credits are based on how much you earned from working. If you did not earn much, your child-related credits will be low.
Have you entered income from working in 2025? 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 $2200 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 canget—- 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 2025, you do not get the CTC. But you may still get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents instead.
And for the Earned Income Credit—-
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 2025 Form 1040 to see the child-related credits you received
PREVIEW 1040
Child Tax Credit line 19
Credit for Other Dependents line 19
Earned Income Credit line 27
Additional Child Tax Credit line 28
AND….If you have children but had little or no income, it raises the question of how you and the children were supported. There may be another tax-paying adult who can claim you and/or the children as dependents.
We can't answer why your Child Tax Credit is only $633 because we can't see your tax return. Since you indicated that you didn't work much, you probably didn't have any taxable income so you may be eligible for the refundable Additional Child Tax Credit. In order to qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit, you must have more than $2,500 in earned income. The additional Child Tax Credit is up to $1,700 per child based on your income.
For more information, refer to the TurboTax Help articles: Child Tax Credit: Top 8 Requirements for 2025-2026, What is the Child Tax Credit?, and What is the Additional Child Tax Credit?
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