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It’s Back-to-School & Time For Your Refund!

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It’s back to school time, so here are some tips for your taxes!

Attention parents:

  1. Get up to $2,000 for the Child Tax Credit if your child is under 17, resided for more than half the year with you, a dependent on your tax return, your relative, a U.S. citizen, national or resident alien. The refundable amount of the credit goes up to $1,400.
  2. If your child is under 13, claim the child and dependent care credit for child care expenses.
  3. Depending on your income, you can claim the Earned Income Credit (EIC).
  4. The Adoption Tax Credit reduces your tax for fees related to court, attorney, travel and meal expenses. You can also claim the Special Needs Credits for all relating child’s special needs expenses.
  5. If you’re paying for your child’s college education, claim the Education Credit for tuition, mandatory supplies and related fees.

Continue reading “It’s Back-to-School & Time For Your Refund!”

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Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and How the Tax Plan May Affect You

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New year, new taxes.

President Trump said that he wanted the new tax plan on his desk by Christmas. Nonetheless, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went through the Senate, House and flew by Congress. Ultimately, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax plan has a goal to reduce the tax rates for individuals and businesses, which will ultimately affect how much you end up receiving your refund and paying in your tax liability. Most changes will expire in 2025 whereas some will remain permanent.

With the media raving about how taxpayers’ pockets will be affected, here are the changes that the new tax plan will lead to starting January 1st, 2019.

What was eliminated in the new tax plan?

Continue reading “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and How the Tax Plan May Affect You”

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How to Qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit

Feel like the coach of a small football team? The IRS gets it!

Whether you have just one on the way or five and counting, kids are expensive. That’s why you should take advantage of tax cuts whenever possible. In addition to claiming them as dependents, you may also qualify for some other credits. One that could end up benefiting you substantially is the Additional Child Tax Credit. Let’s see if this one is for you!

What is the Additional Child Tax Credit (VS. the Child Tax Credit)?

You’ve probably heard of the Child Tax Credit. I’ll sum it up for those of you who don’t (but also check out our other article which goes into more detail, “How to Claim the Child Tax Credit”). Basically, it is a credit that can reduce your tax liability up to $1,000 per qualifying child listed on your tax return. This credit is NON-refundable, meaning that it will reduce your tax liability to $0 but will never overflow into a refund for you.

Now that we’ve covered the Child Tax Credit, you’re probably wondering what the Additional Child Tax Credit is all about, right? This is the refundable credit that will fork over the difference that you weren’t able to claim from the Child Tax Credit.   

Let’s take a look at an example:

Cindy and Lou have three qualifying kids listed on their joint tax return. Their tax liability is $2,500. After applying their Child Tax Credit at $1,000 per child, they were able to get their tax liability down to $0. They then figured out that they qualified for the Additional Child Tax Credit. Cindy and Lou were able to claim that additional $500 as a tax refund!

Here’s the math:  $2,500 IRS tax liability – $3,000 total Child Tax Credit for three kids = – $500 Continue reading “How to Qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit”