Schedule 8812 Calculation Confusion - Advanced Child Tax Credit Not Being Factored Correctly?

This is a common issue people are running into this year. Schedule 8812 can be a bit confusing because the form doesn't subtract your advance payments until later in the calculation process. What's happening is that line 14i is just calculating your TOTAL eligible Child Tax Credit amount for the year. The subtraction of the advance payments you already received happens later on Schedule 8812 - specifically on line 14j where you enter your advance CTC payments. Then line 14k will show your remaining credit (or potential excess that you might have to repay). Double-check that you're completing the entire form. The advance payments don't get factored in until after you calculate your total eligible amount. Make sure you're entering your advance payment amount on the correct line (should be line 14j) and then continuing through the rest of the calculation.

I was having the same issues last month when doing my taxes. I spent hours trying to figure out why the numbers weren't making sense and started to think I was doing something completely wrong. After wasting a whole weekend, I found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that actually helped me sort through my Child Tax Credit confusion. I uploaded my tax documents and it walked me through exactly how Schedule 8812 works - showing me where to enter my advance payments and explaining how the calculation flows. It pointed out that I had actually entered my advance payments in the wrong spot which was throwing everything off. I was able to fix it and get the right refund amount. Seriously saved me from pulling my hair out and possibly filing incorrectly!

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after my skeptical comment above. It was actually super helpful for understanding Schedule 8812! Not just another tax program - it explained the calculation flow in a way that finally made sense to me. The tool showed me exactly where the advance payments get factored in (line 14j, not earlier in the calculation) and pointed out I had made an error in how I was reporting my qualified dependents that was throwing off my entire calculation. Fixed it in 10 minutes after being confused for days!

If you're still having problems understanding the Child Tax Credit calculation, you might want to talk to someone at the IRS directly, but good luck getting through to them! I spent 3 WEEKS trying to reach someone about my CTC questions last year, constantly getting disconnected or waiting on hold for hours. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that actually got me through to a real IRS agent in under 30 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent walked through my Schedule 8812 line by line and explained exactly where the advance payments should be entered and how the calculation works. Turns out I had been entering my 17-year-old in the wrong age category which completely messed up my calculations. Having a real agent explain it made all the difference.

I'm back to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it because I was desperate to figure out why my Child Tax Credit calculation was showing I owed money back when I knew I should be getting more. It actually worked! Got connected to an IRS rep in about 45 minutes (which is a miracle compared to my previous attempts). The agent explained that I had mistakenly entered my advance payments twice in the calculation. Once on Schedule 8812 and again somewhere else in my return, which was causing the system to think I'd received double the advance payments. Would have never figured this out on my own and probably would have filed incorrectly. Sometimes it's worth admitting when you're wrong!

Has anyone noticed if income phaseouts are affecting their Child Tax Credit? I make about $160k as a single parent and when I was doing my Schedule 8812, the calculation seemed to reduce my credit amount before even considering the advance payments.

Does anyone know if we're supposed to have received a letter from the IRS showing how much we got in advance payments? I'm trying to fill out my Schedule 8812 but can't remember exactly how much I received.

The IRS also has a tool on their website where you can look up your advance Child Tax Credit payments if you can't find Letter 6419. Just go to IRS.gov and search for "Child Tax Credit Update Portal" - you can log in and see exactly how much you received in advance payments throughout the year. This is super important to get right because if you enter the wrong amount on Schedule 8812, it'll throw off your entire refund calculation. I learned this the hard way when I accidentally used the wrong number and ended up owing money when I should have gotten a refund!

I had this exact same confusion when I was doing my taxes! The key thing to remember is that Schedule 8812 is designed to work in stages. First it calculates your total eligible Child Tax Credit for the year (which is what you're seeing on line 14i), then it accounts for any advance payments you already received. So that $9,400 on line 14i isn't your final refund amount - it's just showing that based on your two qualifying children, you're eligible for that total credit. The form then subtracts your $3,600 in advance payments on line 14j to show your remaining credit. Make sure you have your Letter 6419 handy (or check the IRS Child Tax Credit Update Portal online) to get the exact advance payment amount. Getting that number wrong will definitely throw off your calculation. Once you enter the correct advance payment amount and complete the rest of the form, you should see your actual remaining credit amount, which should be much closer to what you were expecting.