Child Tax Credit (schedule 8812)

Tools and Utilities • United States of America Taxes

Written by STEM Calculators Team Published January 11, 2026 Updated February 24, 2026

Child Tax Credit (CTC) & Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) — estimator (Schedule 8812)

Fast estimate that follows the core structure of Schedule 8812: base credit, phaseout, nonrefundable cap (tax liability), then refundable ACTC via earned-income formula (and an optional 3+ qualifying children method).

Ready

Tips: (1) If you don’t know AGI yet, you can set “AGI = earned income (rough)” to get a quick phaseout check. (2) If you have 3+ qualifying children, the optional worksheet inputs can matter for ACTC. (3) This tool is an estimator — always confirm on the official Schedule 8812 worksheets.

Inputs

Tax year “moving parts” are built-in (2023–2025).

Tax year

Filing status

Qualifying children count (under 17)

Earned income (for ACTC)

Modified AGI (for phaseout)

Use AGI = earned income (rough)

Total tax liability (before CTC)

ID/SSN requirements satisfied (see notes) Use optional 3+ qualifying children ACTC worksheet inputs (only if applicable)

Children ages (optional) + CSV import

Ages help validate the “under 17” requirement.

Ages list (comma-separated)

Paste CSV (one age per line, or a column named age)

Upload CSV file

If ages are provided, the tool counts qualifying children as ages < 17 and shows warnings if it differs from your count.

Results

Credit split

Nonrefundable vs refundable (ACTC).

Split bar (hover for values)

Item	Amount	Note

Phaseout curve

CTC after phaseout vs AGI (hover + zoom).

Credit vs AGI (Ctrl + wheel to zoom)

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Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) — what this calculator estimates

This calculator follows the main structure of Schedule 8812: it estimates (1) the total Child Tax Credit after phaseout, then (2) how much of that credit is nonrefundable (limited by tax liability), and (3) how much can be refundable ACTC (limited by earned income and other worksheet rules).

This is an estimator. The official IRS worksheets can change year-to-year and can differ based on other credits, exclusions, or special situations. Always verify using the IRS instructions for your selected tax year.

Quick eligibility checklist (high level)

Qualifying child: generally a dependent child who meets relationship, residency, support, and age rules. For the “qualifying child under age 17” count, the child must be under 17 at the end of the tax year.
SSN / ID rules matter. Starting in 2025, the CTC/ACTC requires that at least one filer has a valid SSN and each qualifying child has the required SSN (see IRS instructions for details). If you are unsure, use the calculator’s checkbox as a gate and verify.
The credit can be reduced or eliminated if your modified AGI exceeds the phaseout threshold for your filing status.

Inputs in this tool (how they map to Schedule 8812)

Tax year: selects the “moving parts” used by the estimator (credit amount per child and ACTC refundable cap).
Filing status: determines the phaseout threshold (commonly $400,000 for MFJ and $200,000 for others in these years).
Qualifying children count and optional ages list: ages are used only as a consistency check (under 17). If ages are provided, the tool counts children with age < 17 as qualifying for the CTC/ACTC estimate.
Earned income: used for the ACTC earned-income limitation (and the 3+ children alternative test if enabled).
Modified AGI: used for the phaseout computation. If you don’t know it yet, the “AGI = earned income (rough)” option gives a quick estimate, but it can be inaccurate if you have other income, adjustments, or exclusions.
Total tax liability: used to estimate the nonrefundable portion. On the real return, the credit limit depends on worksheets and other credits; this tool uses your input as a practical approximation.
Optional (3+ qualifying children) worksheet inputs: used only if you enable it and it applies, to estimate the alternative ACTC limit based on payroll taxes and certain other taxes minus certain credits.

Key year parameters used by the estimator (update yearly)

The estimator uses the following core amounts (as implemented for these tax years):

2023: base credit per qualifying child = $ \$2\,000 $; maximum refundable ACTC per child = $ \$1\,600 $.
2024: base credit per qualifying child = $ \$2\,000 $; maximum refundable ACTC per child = $ \$1\,700 $.
2025: base credit per qualifying child = $ \$2\,200 $; maximum refundable ACTC per child = $ \$1\,700 $.

Note: Schedule 8812 also includes a Credit for Other Dependents (often $500 per dependent who isn’t a “qualifying child under 17”). This calculator focuses on qualifying children and the CTC/ACTC split.

How the estimate is calculated (core structure)

1) Base credit (before phaseout)

If n is the number of qualifying children under 17 used by the tool, and C is the per-child CTC amount for the selected year:

\[ \text{Base CTC} = n \cdot C \]

2) Phaseout (income-based reduction)

Let T be the phaseout threshold for your filing status, and let AGI be your modified AGI. Schedule 8812 uses a rounding rule for the excess over the threshold and then applies a 5% reduction.

\[ \text{Excess} = \max\!\left(0,\ \text{AGI} - T\right) \] \[ \text{Rounded Excess} = 1000 \cdot \left\lceil \frac{\text{Excess}}{1000} \right\rceil \] \[ \text{Reduction} = 0.05 \cdot \text{Rounded Excess} \] \[ \text{CTC after phaseout} = \max\!\left(0,\ \text{Base CTC} - \text{Reduction}\right) \]

3) Nonrefundable portion (limited by tax liability)

The Child Tax Credit that reduces your tax is nonrefundable and is limited by the amount of tax you owe (after certain other credits in the official worksheet). This estimator uses your input “total tax liability” as a practical cap:

\[ \text{Nonrefundable CTC} = \min\!\left(\text{CTC after phaseout},\ \text{Tax liability}\right) \]

4) Refundable ACTC (limited by unused credit, per-child cap, and earned-income rules)

Any remaining credit after the nonrefundable limit is “unused” and may be refundable as ACTC, subject to additional limits.

\[ \text{Unused} = \max\!\left(0,\ \text{CTC after phaseout} - \text{Nonrefundable CTC}\right) \] \[ \text{ACTC cap} = n \cdot A_{\max} \] \[ \text{ACTC candidate} = \min\!\left(\text{Unused},\ \text{ACTC cap}\right) \]

The standard earned-income limit uses a threshold of $2,500 and a 15% rate:

\[ \text{EI limit} = 0.15 \cdot \max\!\left(0,\ \text{Earned income} - 2500\right) \]

Then the refundable ACTC estimate is:

\[ \text{ACTC} = \min\!\left(\text{ACTC candidate},\ \text{ACTC limit used}\right) \]

Optional: 3+ qualifying children alternative ACTC limit

If you have 3 or more qualifying children, Schedule 8812 can allow an alternative limit based on certain payroll taxes and other taxes, reduced by certain credits. The tool includes optional inputs for this and, when applicable, uses:

\[ \text{Alt. limit} = \max\!\left(0,\ (\text{Payroll taxes} + \text{Other taxes}) - \text{Credits used}\right) \] \[ \text{ACTC limit used} = \max\!\left(\text{EI limit},\ \text{Alt. limit}\right) \]

If you don’t know these worksheet inputs, keep this option off. The estimator will use the standard earned-income method.

What the charts mean

Split bar: shows how the estimated credit splits into nonrefundable (reduces tax) vs refundable (ACTC).
Phaseout curve: shows the CTC after phaseout as AGI increases, and highlights your current AGI point. Zoom controls help you inspect the phaseout region without crowded labels.

Common reasons your credit is smaller than expected

Phaseout: higher modified AGI reduces the credit in $1,000 steps.
Tax liability cap: nonrefundable CTC can’t exceed your usable tax.
ACTC limits: refundable ACTC is limited by the earned-income formula and the per-child refundable cap.
Eligibility/SSN rules: missing SSN requirements can make the credit unavailable.

Important limitations (read before relying on the estimate)

This tool does not fully reproduce every worksheet dependency (for example, interactions with other nonrefundable credits, foreign earned income exclusions, Puerto Rico rules, and other special cases).
“Earned income” and “modified AGI” have specific IRS definitions. If you are unsure, confirm with the Schedule 8812 instructions for your tax year.
Tax law can change. If you add new tax years, update the year parameters and verify against the official IRS forms/instructions.

Official references (recommended)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC)?

CTC is the total credit amount after any AGI phaseout. Part of it can be nonrefundable (limited by tax liability), and any remaining unused credit may be refundable as ACTC, subject to additional limits.

How does this Schedule 8812 estimator apply the AGI phaseout?

It computes excess = max(0, AGI - threshold) and rounds the excess up to the next $1,000 step, then reduces the base credit by 5% of that rounded excess. The credit after phaseout cannot go below zero.

How is the refundable ACTC limit calculated in this calculator?

The standard earned-income limit is EI_limit = 0.15 x max(0, earned income - 2500). Refundable ACTC is limited by the unused credit after the nonrefundable cap, the per-child refundable cap for the selected year, and the ACTC limit used.

When should the optional 3+ qualifying children worksheet inputs be used?

They are used only when you have 3 or more qualifying children and the alternative ACTC limit is allowed for your case. When enabled, the tool compares the standard earned-income limit to an alternative limit based on payroll taxes and other taxes minus certain credits.

Why does the tool ask for children ages if I already entered a qualifying children count?

Ages are optional and are used only to validate that the children counted are under 17. If the ages list implies a different under-17 count than the number you entered, the calculator shows a warning to help catch input mistakes.