Child Tax Credit Form 8812 Line 5 worksheet (2024)

I cannot find the Line 5 worksheet in my return so I'm not sure where the number came from.

In looking at the worksheet in the irs instructions for the form, it looks to me like the number turbotax inserted ($4850) is in error. I calculate $6000 for 2 children under age 6? (income less than $400k)

‎April 13, 20225:05 PM

TurboTax does the calculations for you and does not need a worksheet.

If you want to do it yourself see https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040s8.pdf page 4.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

The program: The calculation of the additional child tax credit is dependent on the amount of your 'earned income' and the number of qualifying children you have. If you have more than $2,500 of earned income, you can receive all or a portion of the remaining credit on Line 5. Your additional child tax credit will be computed for you using the following formula: 15% times the net amount of your earned income less $2,500. The result is your additional child tax credit up to the maximum potential credit on Line 5 of Schedule 8812.

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If you have 2 children under the age of 6, your child tax credit should be $3,600 for each child. How much did you get in Advanced Child Tax Credit? The refundable child tax credit should be $3,600. But if TurboTax is calculating less than the $3,600 may be because of your income.

The 2021 Child Tax Credit is reduced if your 2021modified adjusted gross income(MAGI) is above certain amounts which are determined by your tax-filing status.

• Qualifying families with incomes less than $75,000 for single, $112,500 for head of household, or $150,000 for joint returns are eligible for the temporarily increased credit of $3,600 for children under 6 and $3,000 for children under 18. Above these income amounts, the credit is reduced by $50 for each $1,000 over these limits.
• For families with MAGI greater than the amounts eligible for the increased credit, the phaseout of the credit begins with $200,000 in income ($400,000 for married filing jointly) and the credit amount is $2,000 for all children under 18 at the end of the tax year.
• Your greatest available credit is based on the above method that provides you with the largest benefit.

Your reply below, and all the other replies I've read on this topic in this thread, make perfect sense. As I go back through my return, I see that my income (MFJ) is below the $150k threshold and my 3 children under 18 qualify me for the full amt of the credit (i.e., 3 x $3,000 = $9,000 and that is what TurboTax software calculated on my return.

My problem is: just received notification from IRS that the credit was calculated incorrectly. They state that calculation should be half that ($4,500). Before I challenge this, I wanted to see if maybe I missed something when using the TTax software? Any thoughts on this would be welcome. I did not manually override any features.

Since the IRS calculated amount is exactly half of what the worksheet for line 5 has calculated, the IRS may be reducing your credit because they have information that the IRS sent you the Advance Child Tax Credit in the months of July thru December 2021. The Advance CTC was $250 for each child age 6 thru 18 per month.

Check your bank statements for July thru December 2021 for any payments from the IRS:

“IRS TREAS 310 CHILDCTC”

Check your tax account to see if there are payments listed -https://www.irs.gov/payments/your-online-account

It is unclear as to which tax year you are asking about since this thread started as a Tax Year 2021 question.

Please update your question and provide information about the tax year and your income or post a new question in a new thread.

@bluedawg

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Turbotax is calculating line 5 incorrectly for 2021 returns, children under the age of 6 are getting $3000 each while kids over 6 are getting $3600, it's backwards.

I have 1 dependent over 6 and 2 under so the calculation should be 10,200 (3600x2+3000). Turbotax calculated 9600 which could only have happened by swapping those amounts (3000x2+3600). I tried to amend but can't override their incorrect logic. How do I proceed?

@CrickleCrabwrote:

Turbotax is calculating line 5 incorrectly for 2021 returns, children under the age of 6 are getting $3000 each while kids over 6 are getting $3600, it's backwards.

I have 1 dependent over 6 and 2 under so the calculation should be 10,200 (3600x2+3000). Turbotax calculated 9600 which could only have happened by swapping those amounts (3000x2+3600). I tried to amend but can't override their incorrect logic. How do I proceed?

Go back to Personal Info and check the birthdates of the children. Looks like one of the children that is under 6 has the wrong date.

For tax year 2021, the Child Tax Credit increased from $2,000 per qualifying child to:$3,600 for children ages 5 and under at the end of 2021; and.$3,000 for children ages 6 through 17 at the end of 2021.

Did you receive an advance child tax credit of $600 and reported that amount on your tax return?

Look at your Schedule 8812 on lines B1 and B2 of Principal Place of Abode and Letter 6419 Smart Worksheet

If so, that would reduce the $10,200 child tax credit to $9,600 on the 2021 tax return.