Posts Tagged ‘child tax credit’

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What Can You Do To Expedite Your Income Tax Refund?

Thursday, April 7th, 2022

The exclusive purpose for the information which is provided from this website is to disseminate information, and not to provide tax advice. 

The information that I am seeing on the Internet states that the IRS goal for having your tax refund in to your bank account is twenty-one days.  While this could be “business days”, I am thinking that it’s “calendar days”.  There are decisions that you can make and actions that you can take that will facilitate this process:

  1.  File your tax return electronically!  It has been said that “paper” is to the IRS as Kryptonite was to Superman!
  2.  Check, double-check, and triple-check your tax return for errors BEFORE you e-file!  From your correct name (that is in the Social Security Administration records) and social security number to the birth dates of your dependents to the numbers that you have entered throughout your tax return.  All numbers can be transposed.
  3. If your tax software includes this function run “Error Checking” multiple times.
  4. Be sure that the “Routing Number”, “Your Full Bank Account Number” and “Bank Name” are all correct.
  5. If you are applying for the “Child Tax Credit”, or the “Earned Income Credit”, or if you received payments for the “Economic Recovery Rebate”  be sure that you provide all of the correct information.  If you received advance child tax credit payments last year, or the Economic Recovery Credit you should receive two separate letters from the IRS stating the amounts that you received.
  6. If you have questions, use https://irs.gov or the Internet to obtain information from the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) or search for the instructions for your forms.

After you have filed your tax return you can use the IRS “Where’s My Refund” hyperlink to obtain the status of your refund ( Refunds | Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov) )

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Eight Opportunities For Parents To Reduce Their Federal Taxes

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

The exclusive purpose for the information which is provided from this website is to disseminate information, and not to provide tax advice. 

Eight Tax Savers for Parents

 

Your children may help you qualify for valuable tax benefits. Here are eight tax benefits parents should look out for when filing their federal tax returns this year.

1.   Dependents.  In most cases, you can claim your child as a dependent. This applies even if your child was born anytime in 2013. For more details, see Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information.

2.   Child Tax Credit.  You may be able to claim the Child Tax Credit for each of your qualifying children under the age of 17 at the end of 2013. The maximum credit is $1,000 per child. If you get less than the full amount of the credit, you may be eligible for the Additional Child Tax Credit. For more about both credits, see the instructions for Schedule 8812, Child Tax Credit, and Publication 972, Child Tax Credit.

3.   Child and Dependent Care Credit.  You may be able to claim this credit if you paid someone to care for one or more qualifying persons. Your dependent child or children under age 13 are among those who are qualified. You must have paid for care so you could work or look for work. For more, see Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses.

4.   Earned Income Tax Credit.  If you worked but earned less than $51,567 last year, you may qualify for EITC. If you have three qualifying children, you may get up to $6,044 as EITC when you file and claim it on your tax return. Use the EITC Assistant tool at IRS.gov to find out if you qualify or see Publication 596, Earned Income Tax Credit.

5.   Adoption Credit.  You may be able to claim a tax credit for certain expenses you paid to adopt a child. For details, see the instructions for Form 8839, Qualified Adoption Expenses.

6.   Higher education credits.  If you paid for higher education for yourself or an immediate family member, you may qualify for either of two education tax credits. Both the American Opportunity Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit may reduce the amount of tax you owe. If the American Opportunity Credit is more than the tax you owe, you could be eligible for a refund of up to $1,000. See Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.

7.   Student loan interest.  You may be able to deduct interest you paid on a qualified student loan, even if you don’t itemize deductions on your tax return. For more information, see Publication 970.

8.   Self-employed health insurance deduction.  If you were self-employed and paid for health insurance, you may be able to deduct premiums you paid to cover your child under the Affordable Care Act. It applies to children under age 27 at the end of the year, even if not your dependent. See Notice 2010-38 for information.  

Forms and publications on these topics are available at IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

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Be Sure To Check Your Tax Credits Before You File Your Tax Return!

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

The exclusive purpose for the information which is provided from this website is to disseminate information, and not to provide tax advice.

 Congress regularly changes the provisions of the U.S. Tax Code for different reasons.  One reason is to provide an offset to your income tax liability which is in the form of a “tax credit” which is similar to and almost as important as a credit posted to your credit card account.  Both reduce the amounts that you owe to either the taxing authority (Internal Revenue Service) or your credit card company.  You’ll never have too much of either!  Insofar as “tax credits” are concerned, they are classified as “refundable” or non-refundable”. 

Refundable tax credits are the best.  For example, if you do not owe any income taxes but you have a $2,000.00 refundable tax credit, you’ll receive a tax refund of $2,000.00.  However, in the same situation with a non-refundable tax credit of $2,000.00 you will receive no tax refund. (more…)

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Child Tax Credit

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

The exclusive purpose for the information which is provided from this website is to disseminate information, and not to provide tax advice.

The Child Tax Credit:   Eleven Key Points

 

The Child Tax Credit is available to eligible taxpayers with qualifying children under age 17.   The IRS would like you to know these eleven facts about the child tax credit.

1.  Amount   With the Child Tax Credit, you may be able to reduce your Federal income tax by up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under age 17.

2.   Qualification   A qualifying child for this credit is someone who meets the qualifying criteria of seven tests: age, relationship, support, dependent, joint return, citizenship and residence.

3.   Age test   To qualify, a child must have been under age 17 – age 16 or younger – at the end of 2011.

4.   Relationship test   To claim a child for purposes of the Child Tax Credit, the child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister or a descendant of any of these individuals, which includes your grandchild, niece or nephew. An adopted child is always treated as your own child.   An adopted child includes a child lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

5.   Support test   In order to claim a child for this credit, the child must not have provided more than half of his/her own support.

6.   Dependent test   You must claim the child as a dependent on your federal tax return.

7.   Joint return test    The qualifying child can not file a joint return for the year (or files it only as a claim for refund).

8.  Citizenship test   To meet the citizenship test, the child must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or U.S. resident alien.

9.   Residence test   The child must have lived with you for more than half of 2011. There are some exceptions to the residence test, found in IRS Publication 972, Child Tax Credit.

10.   Limitations    The credit is limited if your modified adjusted gross income is above a certain amount.   The amount at which this phase-out begins varies by 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. In addition, the Child Tax Credit is generally limited by the amount of the income tax and any alternative minimum tax you owe.

11.   Additional Child Tax Credit   If the amount of your Child Tax Credit is greater than the amount of income tax you owe, you may be able to claim the Additional Child Tax Credit.

For more information, see IRS Publication 972, available at www.IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676). You can also use the Interactive Tax Assistant on the IRS website to determine if you’re eligible for the Child Tax Credit. The ITA is a tax law resource that takes you through a series of questions and provides you with responses to tax law questions.

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