| ||||||
Eligibility for Child Tax Credit by Age of Child |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The child tax credit (CTC) is a $1,000 partially refundable federal income tax credit for each qualifying child under age 17. In 2007, tax filers may claim a refundable credit (over and above any tax liability) equal to 15 percent of the excess of earnings over $11,750, up to the $1,000 maximum per child. The earnings threshold means that families with very low incomes get no benefit from the credit, and others will receive only a partial credit. In 2007, 30 percent of qualifying children under age 2 in working families had family incomes too low to benefit from the full credit, compared with 27 percent of children overall and 24 percent of children 10 and older. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003 doubled the credit to $1,000 and made it partially refundable. In 2007, tax filers may claim a refundable credit equal to 15 percent of the excess of earnings over $11,750, up to the $1,000 maximum per child. Thus, a family with one qualifying child and earnings of $18,417 could benefit from the full $1,000 credit, even if it had no income tax liability. The expanded refundability has made the CTC more valuable to many lower-income families, though many with very low incomes were still left out.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
