Child Tax Credit

• The maximum amount of the credit is $2,000 per qualifying child.
• Taxpayers who are eligible to claim this credit must list the name and Social Security number for each dependent on their tax return.
• The child must be younger than 17 on the last day of the tax year, generally Dec 31.
• The child must be the taxpayer’s son, daughter, stepchild, foster or adopted child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother or half-sister. An adopted child includes a child lawfully placed with them for legal adoption.
• The child must have not provided more than half of their own support for the year.
• The taxpayer must claim the child as their dependent on their federal tax return.
• The child cannot file a tax return for the same year with the status married filing jointly, unless the only reason they are filing is to claim a refund.
• The child must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national or a U.S. resident alien.
• In most cases, the child must have lived with the taxpayer for more than half of 2019.
• In some cases, a taxpayer qualifies and gets less than the full credit. These taxpayers must have earned income of at least $2,500 to receive a refund, even if they owe no tax, with the additional child tax credit.
• The credit begins to phase out at $200,000 of modified adjusted gross income. This amount is $400,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Source: The IRS