Claiming the Child Tax Credit or Credit for Other Dependents

What are the requirements to qualify for the CTC and ACTC?

Your modified adjusted gross income must not exceed the annual limit, which is $200,000 ($400,000 if filing jointly) for taxable years 2018 through 2025.

You and your spouse, if filing jointly, must have a social security number (SSN) or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) issued on or before the due date of your return (including extensions).

NOTE: If you apply for an ITIN on or before the due date of your return (including extensions) and the IRS issues you an ITIN as a result of the application, the IRS will consider your ITIN as issued on or before the due date of your return.

If you are a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico, you may be eligible to claim the ACTC if you had at least one qualifying child. For more information, please visit the IRS webpage, Bona Fide Residents of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico – Tax Credits.

What is a Qualifying Child for CTC and ACTC?

For purposes of claiming the CTC or ACTC, a qualifying child must satisfy the following:

• Be under the age 17 at the end of the year.
• Have a SSN valid for employment issued before the due date of your return (including extensions).
• Be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother, half-sister, or a descendant of one of these (for example, a grandchild, niece or nephew).
• Provide no more than half of their own financial support during the year.
• Have lived with you for more than half the year.
• Be properly claimed as your dependent on your tax return.
• Not file a joint return with their spouse for the tax year or file it only to claim a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax paid.
• Is a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or U.S. resident alien.

What is the Other Dependents Credit?

The ODC is a nonrefundable credit you can claim if you have a dependent who is not a qualifying child for the CTC and you satisfy the following:

• If filing jointly, you and your spouse must have a social security number (SSN) or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) issued on or before the due date of your return (including extensions).
• You claim the dependent on your return.
• The dependent is not used to claim the CTC or ACTC.
• The dependent is either a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or a U.S. resident.
• The dependent has either a valid ITIN, SSN, or ATIN issued on or before the due date of the return (including extensions). The SSN doesn’t have to be valid for employment.

How do I Claim the Credits?

You will need to file a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return to claim the CTC, ACTC, and ODC by entering your children and other dependents under the Dependents section and  attaching a completed Schedule 8812, Credits for Qualifying Children and Other Dependents.

When Can I Expect my Refund?

By law, an ACTC refund cannot be issued before mid-February. However, this includes your entire refund, not just the ACTC refund.

Can I Check the Status of my Refund?

You can check the status of your refund at Where’s my refund and IRS2Go app.

Do I need to do anything special if my credits were disallowed in a prior year?

If your CTC, ACTC, or ODC was disallowed in a prior year for any reason except for a math or clerical error, you must attach Form 8862, Information To Claim Certain Credits After Disallowance, to your tax return to claim the credits.

• Child Tax Credit
• Does my child/dependent qualify for the child tax credit or the credit for other dependents?
• Child related tax benefits comparison | Earned Income Tax Credit
• About Schedule 8812 (Form 1040), Credits for Qualifying Children and Other Dependents | Internal Revenue Service
• Valuable information about child and dependent-related tax benefits
• Notice CP75 Series

If you are claiming a qualifying child:

• You can’t be a qualifying child of another person;
• The qualifying child must have a Social Security Number (SSN);
• The child generally can’t be married;
• Your qualifying child can’t be used by more than one person to claim the EITC; and
• The child must pass relationship, age, residency, and joint return tests.

Relationship Test

The child must be related to you.

Many different relationships qualify for EITC, including:

• Son or daughter (whether by blood or adoption), stepchild, qualified foster child, or their descendants (grandchild or great-grandchild), or
• Full, half, and step-siblings or their descendants (niece or nephew), or
• This means some relationships aren’t covered. For instance, you can’t claim the child of your boyfriend/girlfriend, a neighbor, or a cousin even if you provide care for that child.

Age Test

The child must be:

• Under age 19 at the end of the tax year and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), or
• Under age 24 at the end of the tax year, and a full-time student for at least 5 months of the year, and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), or
• Permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year, regardless of age.

Residency Test

The child must have lived with you in the United States for more than half of the tax year. This doesn’t mean six months in a row. For example: If your child lives with you during the school year but spends summers elsewhere, the months the child lives with you count toward the six months. The IRS also recognizes that temporary absences of the taxpayer or the qualifying child due to a special circumstance (such as illness, school attendance, business, vacation, military service, or detention in a juvenile facility) may count as time the child lived with the taxpayer.

You may need to show the IRS that you’re entitled to the EITC.

The IRS may send you a notice asking you to provide documents to show you’re entitled to claim the credit. The notice you get will tell you the documents you need to send to claim the credit (birth certificates, school records, etc.).

You may use these templates to get the requested information from the school, healthcare provider, or childcare provider to verify your qualifying child’s residency.

School

Healthcare Providers

Childcare Providers

Sometimes you may not have the specific types of documents requested by the IRS. IRS Form 886-H-EIC, Documents You Need to Send to Claim the Earned Income Tax Credit on the Basis of a Qualifying Child or Children, lists many options, but remember that different combinations may also be acceptable. The IRS has developed a toolkit to help you identify what documents you might provide to the IRS to determine if your child is a qualifying child.

Let’s say the IRS wants medical records to show the child lived with you during the year in question, and you can’t get those, or your child didn’t go to the doctor. There may be other records that show your child lived with you, such as social service records, childcare provider records, or official mail addressed to the child. You may want to check to see if there’s an agency that has a record of your address and any additional information that shows the child lived with you. If so, it may be able to give you a signed letter on their official letterhead showing these details.

A certain document alone generally doesn’t show you are entitled to receive the credit, but in combination with other records, it can demonstrate that you are entitled to the credit.

Note: If you get school records to verify one or more of the tests, remember a school “year” really is just part of the calendar year because school starts in the autumn of one calendar year and ends in the spring of the next calendar year. You’d need to ask for two school years to cover one calendar year. You might have to get the school to write a letter, rather than provide just the transcripts, to show the child’s guardian during the calendar year and the address on record during that time.

Special Rules

There are special EITC rules for members of the military, ministers, members of the clergy, those receiving disability benefits, and those impacted by disasters. If you fall into any of these categories, please visit the IRS Special EITC Rules page.

The PATH Act prevents you from filing retroactive returns or amended returns claiming EITC, ACTC, or the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) if the reason you are filing is because you now have the type of valid Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) required for each credit but didn’t have such TIN before the due date of the return.

If for any reason you or one of your family members didn’t receive a valid “taxpayer identification number” by the due date of the tax return (including extensions), you cannot file a past due return or an amended return to claim any of these credits. A valid taxpayer identification number could be an SSN, Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), or Adopted Taxpayer Identification Number (ATIN) depending on the requirement for each credit.

You can’t file a past due return or an amended return to claim the EITC for anyone on the return without an SSN that’s valid for employment by the due date of the return including a valid extension.

To claim the credit, file your tax return

To claim the credit, if eligible, you must file a tax return – whether you normally need to file or not. You need to complete an IRS Form Schedule EIC, Earned Income Credit and file it with your return, if you’re claiming a qualifying child. If you don’t have a qualifying child, you claim the credit on your tax return.

If you need free help preparing your tax returns, type “Free Tax Prep” in the search box on www.IRS.gov and use the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) locator tool to find a volunteer site near you. You can also prepare and electronically file your own tax return with professional software using the IRS’s Free File program.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent organization within the IRS. TAS helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS, makes administrative and legislative recommendations to prevent or correct the problems, and protects taxpayer rights. TAS helps all taxpayers (and their representatives), including individuals, businesses, and exempt organizations. You may be eligible for free TAS help if your IRS problem is causing financial difficulty, if you’ve tried and been unable to resolve your issue with the IRS, or if you believe an IRS system, process, or procedure just isn’t working as it should.  

 TAS has offices in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To find your local advocate’s number: 

• Visit www.TaxpayerAdvocate.irs.gov/contact-us; 
• Check your local directory; or 
• Call TAS toll-free at 877-777-4778. 

Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITCs) assist individuals whose income is below a certain level who need to resolve tax problems with the IRS. They also provide education, outreach, and information on taxpayer rights to individuals who speak English as a second language. LITCs represent taxpayers in disputes before the IRS and courts and help taxpayers respond to IRS notices and correct account problems. Services are offered for free or a small fee. LITCs are independent from the IRS and TAS. For more information or to find an LITC near you, see the LITC Page or Publication 4134, Low Income Taxpayer Clinic List. You can also request Pub. 4134 by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676). 

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• 26 USC 2: Definitions and special rules
• 26 USC 32: Earned income
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