Claiming the Credit

After you determine how many of your dependents qualify for the credit, you must remember to check the box next to the names of the qualifying children on the front of your tax form (the boxes are in Column 4 of Line 6c on Form 1040 or 1040A).

The child tax credit is subtracted from your tax bill after several of the other credits; namely, the foreign tax credit, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the credit for retirement savings contributions, the education credits, the credit for residential energy-efficient property, the credits for plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicles, the mortgage interest credit, and the credit for the elderly and disabled. You will need to compute the amounts of any of those credits that apply to you before you can determine the amount of tax that's left over, and therefore is available to be reduced by your child tax credit.

Planning Tools You can use these Child Tax Credit worksheets and Form 8812 to determine the actual amount of your child tax credit or additional child credit.

If you had three or more children and your tax bill is too low to allow you to claim all of your child credit, you must complete and file IRS Form 8812, Additional Child Tax Credit, in order to be able to claim the extra refundable amount.