Question

2021 child tax credit

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 16, 2022
2 replies
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The child tax credit should be $3k per kid if your AGI is less than $150k. Turbotax even states this here:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/credits-and-deductions/help/what-is-the-child-tax-credit/00/25961

However, within turbotax the "on demand guidance" that explains child tax credit only refers to the $2k per child that it used to be, and even when it calculates my AGI as less than $150k it still only gives me a credit of $2k per child. How do I correct this to get the full credit the government allows for 2021?

LeonardS

When you enter your personal and dependent information TurboTax calculates your Child Tax Credit (CTC). Initially, TurboTax calculates your return as if you received the entire amount of CTC you were eligible to receive and no credit is applied. You will need to enter the amount of CTC you received, this will allow TurboTax to calculate any additional CTC you are entitled to and TurboTax will apply that credit to your tax return.

To enter the CTC you have received follow these steps:

With TurboTax open select Deductions & Credits.
On the section Your tax breaks select edit on the line Advance payments, Child and Other Dependent Tax Credits.
Follow the prompts to the page Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments.
Enter the amount of advanced CTC you received.
Follow the prompts to the page Let's recheck your advance Child Tax Credit payments.
Verify that the amount is correct.
Follow the prompts until you are back on the page Your tax breaks where you will see the CTC being applied to your tax return.

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L

LincolnJAuthor

Thank you for this, but it doesn't solve the problem. First, under "deductions and credits" I do not have a section called "Your Tax Breaks". Rather, under "you and your family" there is a section for "child and other dependent tax credit". It is in this section that I entered the full amount of the advance payments I have received. And in there it double verified the amounts I had received. My AGI, or "taxable income" is less than the $150k threshold, but still if I add the advance payments I received with the credit turbo tax is applying, the total comes to $2150 per kid. This is decidedly less than $3000 per kid.

rjs

Employee

@LincolnJ wrote:

My AGI, or "taxable income" is less than the $150k threshold

AGI and taxable income are two very different amounts. Taxable income is usually much less than AGI. Furthermore, the limitation of the Child Tax Credit is based on Modified AGI (MAGI), not AGI. Certain amounts are added to your AGI to arrive at MAGI. The most likely addition is any income for which you claimed the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

You haven't said what your filing status is. The $150,000 threshold is only for married filing jointly. For any other filing status the threshold is lower.

Look at Schedule 8812 to see how your Child Tax Credit is calculated.

rjs

Employee

You only get the $3,000 child tax credit if your main home was in the U.S. for 6 or more months in 2021. Otherwise your child tax credit follows the old rules. Review your answer to the question about where your main home was.

Did you receive monthly advance Child Tax Credit Payments? The monthly payments were advance payments of part of the credit, so the credit on your tax return is reduced by the amount that you got in advance.

L

LincolnJAuthor

Thank you, but the problem persists. My main and only home was in the US for the whole year, and I did respond to that question accordingly. I did receive advance payments, but even accounting for that the total credit I'm being credited amounts to $2150 per kid rather than the $3000 per kid that should be the case.