The short answer
For 2026 the credit is worth up to $2,200 for each qualifying child under 17, and up to $1,700 of that can come back as a refund if it is larger than the tax you owe. A separate $500 credit covers dependents who are not qualifying children. Both start shrinking above $200,000 of income, or $400,000 for a married couple filing jointly.
What the credit is worth
The Child Tax Credit is $2,200 for each qualifying child for 2026. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in July 2025, raised the credit to that level and made it permanent, so it no longer expires at the end of 2025 as the previous figure was scheduled to.
Alongside it sits the credit for other dependents, worth $500 each. It covers the people a household supports who do not meet the child test - a 17 or 18 year old still at home, a college student, an elderly parent, a disabled adult child. It is claimed on the same return and reduced by the same income rules.
Who counts as a qualifying child
A qualifying child must not have turned 17 by the end of the tax year. That is the single most common reason a family's credit falls: the year a child turns 17, the $2,200 becomes $500, and nothing about the household has changed. The child must also be related to you, have lived with you for more than half the year, and not have provided more than half of their own support.
Each qualifying child needs a Social Security number valid for employment, and since 2025 so does the person claiming the credit - one Social Security number on a joint return is enough. This is a gate rather than a reduction: without it there is no credit at all, however low the household's income.
Refundable and nonrefundable are not the same money
A nonrefundable credit can reduce your tax bill to zero and no further. The Child Tax Credit is partly refundable: up to $1,700 per child can be paid out as a refund even when you owe no tax. The remaining $500 of each child's credit can only offset tax you actually owe.
The refundable part is also capped by earnings. It is 15% of earned income above $2,500, so a household earning $15,000 can collect at most $1,875 of refundable credit however many children it has, and a household with no earned income at all collects nothing. This is the part of the credit most often misunderstood as a payment for having children rather than a credit against tax.
Where the credit starts to disappear
Above $200,000 of modified adjusted gross income - $400,000 for a married couple filing jointly - the credit falls by $50 for every $1,000 of income or part of $1,000. Every filing status other than married filing jointly uses the lower threshold, including head of household.
Because the reduction rounds up to the next $1,000, income of $200,001 costs exactly as much credit as income of $200,999. And because the phase-out applies to the total across all children and dependents, a larger family stays partly eligible further up the income scale than a smaller one.
Claiming it, and what can delay a refund
You claim the credit on your federal income tax return with Schedule 8812. There are no monthly advance payments for 2026; the credit arrives with your refund. A household with income below the filing threshold still has to file a return to receive the refundable part - it is not paid automatically.
By law the IRS cannot issue a refund that includes the refundable Child Tax Credit before mid-February, even if the return is filed in January. Planning around a late-January refund is a common and avoidable disappointment.
What our calculator works out
Our Child Tax Credit calculator works out the credit for your household from the number and ages of your children, your other dependents, your filing status and your income - including how much of it is refundable given your earnings and how much the phase-out takes away.
What this does not tell you
This is an estimate, not tax advice and not a filed return. The IRS determines the credit from your actual return, and other parts of your tax situation can change the result.
The calculator applies the federal credit. It does not model state child tax credits, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the child and dependent care credit, or rules for divorced and separated parents deciding which of them may claim a child.
Official sources
What you can do next
Check the ages first. If a child turns 17 during the tax year, the household's credit drops by $1,700 and the arithmetic is worth doing before you plan around a refund. Run your numbers through the calculator, and if you also have modest earnings, look at the Earned Income Tax Credit as well - the two are claimed on the same return.