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Child Tax Credit Calculator (2025)
Estimate 2025 child tax credit amounts with current-law rules: phaseouts, nonrefundable credit, refundable additional credit, and total benefit.
Results
- Total child tax credit
- $4,000
- Nonrefundable portion (offsets tax)
- $3,000
- Refundable Additional CTC
- $1,000
- Credit after phaseout
- $4,000
- Phaseout reduction
- $0
How to use this calculator
- Select filing status and enter qualifying children under 17.
- Enter earned income and your tax liability before credits.
- Review credit after phaseout, nonrefundable amount, refundable Additional CTC, and total credit.
Inputs explained
- Tax liability
- Federal income tax owed before applying the child tax credit; caps the nonrefundable portion.
- Earned income
- Wages or self-employment income used for the refundable 15% formula over $2,500.
How it works
Base credit = $2,000 per qualifying child under 17.
Phaseout reduces credit by $50 per $1,000 of income above $200,000 (single/HOH) or $400,000 (MFJ).
Nonrefundable credit is limited to your tax liability. Remaining credit may be partly refundable as Additional CTC.
Refundable Additional CTC is limited to 15% of earned income over $2,500 and capped at $1,700 per child (current-law 2024/2025 assumption).
When to use it
- Quickly sizing your 2025 child tax credit before filing.
- Estimating how phaseouts affect higher earners.
- Seeing how much of the credit could be refundable vs nonrefundable.
Tips & cautions
- If IRS updates the refundable cap per child, adjust the rate in your assumptions; this uses the current $1,700 cap.
- If earned income changes during the year, rerun the calculation; refundable Additional CTC depends on income over $2,500.
- Simplified; does not model partial-year income, multiple phaseout cliffs, or other credits/withholding interactions.
- Current-law amounts assumed for 2025; subject to legislative changes.
Deep dive
Calculate your 2025 child tax credit with phaseouts, nonrefundable credit, and refundable Additional CTC using current-law limits.
Enter filing status, children, income, and tax liability to estimate total child tax credit and how much may be refunded.
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