Reply #129: I seem to have been mistaken, although I am not sure when it changed [View All]

[hfojvt]

Here's my original reasoning. The child tax credit is $500 and then it is increased to $1,000. But, it is not refundable. If you figure that credit on line 52 of the 1040, it is not more than your tax liability. A family of 4 is already paying zero in taxes with a $500 tax credit (edit if their income is less than $34,900). So they did not get any benefit when the child tax credit went to $1,000 per child. That benefit was reserved for families making more, sometimes much more than $34,900.

However, I notice that it IS refundable, with certain calculations and restrictions on line 66. I do wonder though, how many moderate income families are not getting the credit because form 8812 is not readily available and they do not bother to check because they figure they probably won't get the credit anyway. I missed out on some credits from line 51 myself, although I later filed some amended returns (but only 3 years was allowed and I do not know how many years I missed the credit because form 8880 was not readily available until I got the internet).

Also, I am not sure when that changed, if it was part of the original bill from 2004 or it was added later, and there are various threshholds on form 8812 which have changed, providing the credit for more people, presumably. I understood from 2003 that refundability was stripped out by Senate Republicans and never heard of it being added back in with line 66. So my understanding, which seems to be in error, was that lower income families were not getting the child tax credit.