How much money does the IRS give for a child on tax returns?

Question

What is the amount the IRS gives for children that are claimed on tax returns? Is there a standard amount? Does it depend on how much you earn during the year?

Answer 1

If you qualify for them, the two major ones are the "Dependency Exemption" ($3,300) and the "Child Tax Credit ($1,000). Your children may also qualify you for other benefits like a "Dependant Care Credit," an increased "Earned Income Credit," or an "Adoption Credit" (just to name a few).

The first two I mentioned are the only ones that tend to be a fixed amount. The others usually are calculated based on how much you paid (for daycare, for adoption expenses, etc) or how much you earned (EIC).

Answer 2

You'd be eligible for an exemption of $3300 (subtracted from your income before your tax is calculated) and a child tax credit of $1000 subtracted from your total taxes. If you don't owe that much tax for the year, then it would only take you tax to zero, not below - you wouldn't get the extra refunded to you. So yes, in a sense it does depend on how much you make, since if you don't make enough to pay taxes anyway, you don't get a tax benefit from the child.

There is something called an additional child tax credit which, in some cases, gives you some of the child tax credit money if you don't have enough taxes to match it against.