The Child Tax Credit may be able to reduce your federal income tax by up to $1,000 for each qualifying child. To qualify for the credit, each child must pass six tests.
Age Test |
To qualify, a child must have been under age 17 – age 16 or younger – at the end of 2015. |
Relationship Test |
To claim a child for purposes of the Child Tax Credit, they must either be your son, daughter, stepson, stepdaughter, adopted child, foster child, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or descendent of any of them. |
Support Test |
In order to claim a child for this credit, the child must not have provided more than half of their own support. |
Dependent Test |
You must claim the child as a dependent on your federal tax return. |
Citizenship Test |
To meet the citizenship test, the child must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien. |
Residence Test |
The child must have lived with you for more than half of 2015. There are some exceptions to the residence test, which can be found in IRS Publication 972, Child Tax Credit. |
Limitations - The credit is limited and starts decreasing in value if your adjusted gross income (AGI) is above a certain amount. The amount at which this phase-out begins varies depending on your filing status. For married taxpayers filing a joint return, the phase-out begins at $110,000. For married taxpayers filing a separate return, it begins at $55,000. For all other taxpayers, the phase-out begins at $75,000.
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