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Child Tax Credit and ACTC Calculator

Estimate the nonrefundable Child Tax Credit and refundable Additional Child Tax Credit from qualifying children, tax liability, earned income, and editable tax-year assumptions.

Inputs

Child tax credit inputs

Choose the tax year for the credit, phaseout, and refundable rules. The calculator does not automatically look up current IRS thresholds.

Range: 0–20 count

Enter children who meet the age, relationship, residency, and identification requirements for the credit. Professional example: 1. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100,000 $

Enter the per-child credit amount for the selected year. Verify current law and any special amount. Professional example: 2000. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100,000,000 $

Enter the phaseout reduction from your income and filing-status analysis. This calculator does not compute the threshold or rounding worksheet automatically. Professional example: 0. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100,000,000 $

Enter federal tax liability before the child credit. Professional example: 1500. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100,000,000 $

Enter earned income used for the refundable-credit calculation. Professional example: 40000. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100,000,000 $

Enter the threshold above which earned income creates refundable-credit capacity for this estimate. Verify the selected tax year. Professional example: 2500. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100 %

Enter the refundable rate applied to earned income above the threshold. Verify current Schedule 8812 rules. Professional example: 15. Edit this value for your own facts.

Range: 0–100,000 $

Enter the refundable cap per qualifying child for the selected year. Professional example: 1700. Edit this value for your own facts.

Result

Nonrefundable Child Tax Credit
1,500.00
Potential credit after phaseout
2,000.00
Estimated refundable ACTC
500.00
Estimate
Earned-income refundable capacity
5,625.00
Potential credit before phaseout
2,000.00
Credit remaining for ACTC
500.00
Tax-year basis
The selected tax year identifies the credit, phaseout, earned-income, and refundable-cap assumptions. User-supplied limits must be verified against current Schedule 8812 instructions.
How to interpret this result
The potential credit is per-child credit after the entered phaseout reduction. Nonrefundable CTC is limited by tax liability; the remaining credit is limited by earned-income capacity and the total refundable cap to estimate ACTC.
Applicability and limits
This is a Schedule 8812 planning estimate. It does not determine qualifying-child status, Social Security number rules, MAGI phaseout thresholds, earned-income exceptions, other refundable credits, or the final refund.
Calculation basis
Potential credit = max(children × credit per child − phaseout reduction, 0). Nonrefundable CTC = min(potential credit, tax liability). Earned-income excess = max(earned income − threshold, 0). Earned-income refundable capacity = excess × refundable rate. ACTC = min(remaining credit, earned-income capacity, children × refundable cap per child).

Formula

Calculation logic

Formula definitions and substituted values.

What to check

  • A taxpayer enters income, expenses, contribution, eligibility, and limit assumptions to estimate a credit or deduction before filing.
  • Use it when comparing a potential credit or deduction with the supplied tax-year facts.
  • This is a Schedule 8812 planning estimate. It does not determine qualifying-child status, Social Security number rules, MAGI phaseout thresholds, earned-income exceptions, other refundable credits, or the final refund.

Related calculators

This is a Schedule 8812 planning estimate. It does not determine qualifying-child status, Social Security number rules, MAGI phaseout thresholds, earned-income exceptions, other refundable credits, or the final refund.