The 2026 amounts
Revenue Procedure 2025-32 sets the maximum Child Tax Credit at $2,200 for a taxable year beginning in 2026 and the amount used to figure the refundable additional Child Tax Credit at $1,700. Those figures appear in section 4.05 of the procedure and are summarized in IRS news release IR-2025-103. They apply to returns filed in 2027 for tax year 2026.
The credit is still limited by your income tax (the nonrefundable part) and, for the refundable part, by 15% of earned income above $2,500 and by $1,700 per qualifying child. If income tax is $800 and the credit before that limit is $2,200, $800 is used against the tax and up to $1,400 may come back as the additional Child Tax Credit, subject to the earned-income formula. If income tax is already zero, the entire allowed additional credit can be refunded, still capped at $1,700 per child.
Phase-out and other dependents
Section 24(h) of the Internal Revenue Code, which the 2025 Act made permanent, begins to reduce the credit when modified AGI exceeds $200,000, or $400,000 on a joint return. The reduction is $50 for each $1,000 or fraction of $1,000 over the threshold. A single parent whose modified AGI is $201,000.01 is $1,000.01 over the line and loses $100, not $50, because a fraction of a thousand counts as a full step. The same phase-out applies to the $500 credit for other dependents, which is not refundable and is not part of the $1,700 additional Child Tax Credit.
Families with three or more qualifying children sometimes use an alternative additional-credit computation on Schedule 8812 that looks at Social Security taxes minus EITC. This calculator does not run that alternative, so a household in that situation should follow the official schedule. For how the credit flows into a refund, use the tax refund calculator or read the 2026 Child Tax Credit guide.
Using the fields without inflating the credit
Enter only children you reasonably expect to be qualifying children under the official tests, not every person in the household. Enter income tax before this credit, not tax after it, or the nonrefundable portion will look too small and the additional credit too large. Modified AGI is often the same as AGI; add back excluded foreign earned income if that applies, as the instructions require. Earned income is generally wages plus net self-employment earnings, not unemployment or interest. If you are unsure, read the Child Tax Credit guide and the IRS page before you treat a large additional credit as money in the bank.
The phase-out is unforgiving around the $200,000 and $400,000 lines because a fraction of $1,000 counts as a full $50 step. If a year-end bonus or a brokerage sale might cross a step, run the number both ways. After you have a credit figure, put the same child count into the refund calculator with withholding to see whether the credit reduces a bill, increases a refund, or is already more than the tax.