The $2,200 maximum per child
For taxable years beginning in 2026 the maximum child tax credit is $2,200 per qualifying child, so the first step is a multiplication: one child is $2,200, two are $4,400 and three are $6,600. Nothing is prorated in between, and the count is rounded down to whole children, because a partially qualifying child is not a category the law recognizes.
The figure is set each season by the IRS revenue procedure preserved in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2025-45 and printed again on the IRS child tax credit page, so it is a number with a date on it rather than a permanent constant. That is why the tax year is named beside the result instead of being left to memory.
The credit is claimed on the return against tax owed: it is not an advance payment and it is not a deduction. What happens next is what the rest of this page is about. The phase-out can shrink that headline amount at higher incomes, and the earned income floor decides how much of it can be paid out rather than only offset tax.
What counts as a qualifying child
Four tests decide it, and a child has to clear all four. The first is age: under 17 at the end of the year. A child who turns 17 during the year stops counting here, though the separate credit for other dependents may still apply to them, at $500 instead of $2,200.
The second is residence: the child lived with you for more than half the year. That is why a child in a split custody arrangement qualifies for one household only - the one that claims the dependent - and why counting the same child on two returns is the mistake the test exists to prevent.
The last two are documentation. The child must be claimed as a dependent on your return, and must have a Social Security number issued on or before the due date of the return, extensions included. On a joint return only one spouse needs a valid SSN; the other needs an SSN or an ITIN issued by that same deadline. Fail any one test and the child drops out of the count entirely rather than counting for less.
The refundable slice: up to $1,700
Part of the credit can come back even when it exceeds the tax you owe, and that share is priced through the Additional Child Tax Credit. For 2026 the ceiling is $1,700 per qualifying child, so two children carry up to $3,400.
That ceiling is then cut down to a share of earned income. The return takes earned income above $2,500, multiplies the excess by 15%, and keeps the smaller of that figure and the per-child maximum. Earn $10,000 with one child and the 15% side comes to $1,125, so $1,125 is what could come back rather than the full $1,700; earn under $2,500 and the refundable side is nothing at all.
A second limit sits on top of that one. The return compares the refundable figure with the tax you owe and with what is left of the credit after other credits, so what actually arrives can be smaller than either ceiling. This page has no field for your tax, which is why it prints the figure as a maximum instead of a forecast.
The credit phases out at higher incomes
The second step compares the whole credit with your modified AGI. Once that income passes $200,000, or $400,000 on a joint return, the credit falls by $50 for each $1,000 above the line, and the reduction comes off the combined credit rather than one child at a time.
The excess is measured the way line 10 of Schedule 8812 measures it: everything above the threshold is rounded up to the next whole $1,000, and line 11 takes 5% of that figure, which is the same $50 per $1,000 the statute states in dollars. The rounding is what catches people out. Two children and $200,001 of modified AGI is $1 over the line, and $1 over still counts as one full step, so the credit drops $50 to $4,350; the form rounds $425 up to $1,000 and $1,025 up to $2,000 for the same reason.
Modified AGI here is line 3 of Schedule 8812: adjusted gross income plus any excluded Puerto Rico or American Samoa income and any foreign earned income or housing exclusion from Form 2555. It is not taxable income, which has the standard or itemized deduction taken out first. The reduction never runs below zero - two children at $400,000 of modified AGI are $200,000 over the line, which is 200 steps and $10,000 of reduction, so it stops at the $4,400 the credit was worth and nothing is left.
Danfio