Parents’ Child Tax Credit Grows to $2,300 per Child for 2027, With Up to $1,800 of It Refundable, Under New IRS Figures

$2,300. That is the most the Child Tax Credit can be worth per qualifying child for tax year 2027, according to figures the IRS published Nov. 5, 2026. Of that, up to $1,800 is the refundable portion, the part that can come back as a refund even when a family owes no federal income tax.

The numbers appear in the agency’s annual inflation release, IR-2026-133, and each is $100 higher than the year before. The full tables are in Revenue Procedure 2026-35. The IRS said the adjustments generally apply to tax returns filed in 2028, so the 2027 amounts are not something a family can claim this winter.

Two dollar figures, two different jobs

The credit has two layers. The first reduces the federal income tax a household owes, dollar for dollar. The second, called the additional child tax credit, is the refundable layer. The IRS release puts the 2027 maximum for the whole credit at $2,300 per child, up $100, and the refundable portion at $1,800, also up $100.

That split is why the same credit can mean different things for different families. A household with a large tax bill uses the credit to shrink it. A household with little or no income tax liability can only receive the refundable part, and only up to $1,800 per child. The IRS’s Child Tax Credit page says the refundable amount applies when a household has little or no federal income tax liability, and that it requires at least $2,500 of earned income.

The Tax Foundation lists the same $2,300 credit and $1,800 refundable amount.

What a child has to be for the credit to apply

None of that changes who counts. According to the IRS, the child must be under 17 at the end of the tax year and must be the taxpayer’s son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, sibling, half- or step-sibling, or a descendant of one of them. The child cannot provide more than half of their own support, must have lived with the taxpayer for more than half the year and must be claimed as a dependent.

Social Security numbers are part of the test too. The IRS page says the taxpayer, a spouse on a joint return and each qualifying child need an SSN valid for U.S. employment, issued before the return’s due date, including extensions. The child must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or U.S. resident alien.

The IRS also lists a separate credit for other dependents, worth up to $500 for dependents who do not qualify for the Child Tax Credit.

One more condition catches some families: the child generally cannot file a joint return. The IRS lists an exception when the joint return was filed only to claim a refund of withheld or estimated taxes. A child who does not meet every item on the list does not count toward the credit, even if the family claims them as a dependent in other ways.

The agency points taxpayers who are unsure to its Interactive Tax Assistant, an online tool that asks the qualifying questions and says whether a household qualifies for the Child Tax Credit, the additional child tax credit or the credit for other dependents. It is the quickest way to test a specific family against the rules before the 2027 numbers matter.

Where the income limits sit

The IRS’s current page says the full credit applies when income is no more than $200,000, or $400,000 for joint filers, and that higher-income parents may receive a partial credit. The 2027 release, as published, does not restate those thresholds, so the current page remains the reference for them.

For a family claiming the full amount, the dollar difference is modest. At the current $2,200 maximum, the 2027 credit is $100 larger per child. A household with three qualifying children would see a maximum of $6,900 in total credit under the 2027 figures, compared with $6,600 at current levels, if all of them qualify and income does not reduce the credit.

The refundable layer is the piece that depends most on work. Because the IRS ties the additional child tax credit to earned income of at least $2,500, a household with no wages or self-employment income would not receive that portion, no matter how many children it has. The higher 2027 cap of $1,800 raises the ceiling for families that do clear the earned-income test, not the number of families that clear it.

The filing steps and the February wait

The IRS says children and dependents go on Form 1040, with a completed Schedule 8812 attached. That schedule is where the credit, the credit for other dependents and the additional child tax credit are calculated.

Timing is the other fixed point. The IRS states that if a return claims the Earned Income Tax Credit or the additional child tax credit, it cannot issue refunds before mid-February, and that includes the part of the refund not tied to those credits. The same release raised the top Earned Income Tax Credit to $8,496 for families with three or more children, a change the site covered in its report on the 2027 standard deduction.

For now, the practical takeaway is narrow. The IRS has published the amounts, $2,300 and $1,800, and the rules for children, income and Social Security numbers are the same ones the agency lists today. Which families qualify, and for how much, is decided by the return they file in 2028 and the IRS’s review of it.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: 0x010C – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons