Who should claim child tax credit when one spouse makes significantly more?

Filing federal and state taxes in Georgia this year and trying to figure out the best approach for our family. I make around $104k at my full-time job, while my husband only worked part-time for a couple months at a restaurant where he earned mostly tips. His W-2 shows just $660 in reported income. We have a 4-year-old daughter and I'm trying to understand which one of us should claim the child tax credit to maximize our refund. Does it even matter since we're married, or would it benefit us more if one of us claims her over the other? We normally file married jointly but wondering if there's an advantage to filing separately this year given the income disparity? Any advice is appreciated!

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20 comments

Kiara Fisherman

•8M

The child tax credit doesn't actually depend on which parent claims the child when you're married filing jointly - the credit applies to the household. If you file jointly, your combined income determines eligibility for the full credit. For 2024 taxes (filed in 2025), the child tax credit is $2,000 per qualifying child under 17, and it begins to phase out when your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $400,000 for married filing jointly. With your combined income around $105k, you should qualify for the full credit when filing jointly. Filing separately almost never benefits married couples tax-wise, especially when children are involved. Many tax benefits including certain child-related credits are reduced or eliminated when using married filing separately status.

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Kiara Fisherman

•8M

Filing as Head of Household requires you to be considered unmarried (either actually unmarried or meeting specific requirements to be "considered unmarried" for tax purposes) and paying more than half the costs of keeping up a home where your qualifying person lives. It's not something you can choose just to get a better tax outcome while still married. Head of Household generally has better tax rates than single or married filing separately, but married filing jointly is still usually more beneficial for most couples. Tax planning around a hypothetical divorce would be inappropriate and potentially far more costly in other ways than any tax savings.

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Savannah Vin

•8M

I was stressing about this same thing last year! I ended up using https://taxr.ai to analyze our tax situation, and it was super helpful. I uploaded our W-2s and previous returns, and it ran different scenarios to show us exactly who should claim what. It showed me that filing jointly was WAY better for us - we got to keep the full child tax credit and several other benefits we would have lost filing separately. Plus it found some deductions we totally missed. My situation was similar - I made about 90k and hubby only worked part time making like 15k.

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Savannah Vin

•8M

You upload your tax documents (W-2s, 1099s, previous returns, etc.), and it analyzes everything to give you specific recommendations. Yes, it calculates real numbers for different filing scenarios and shows you side-by-side comparisons of your options. It's completely secure - they use bank-level encryption and don't store your actual documents after processing. They explain all that on their security page. I was hesitant too at first, but honestly it saved us over $1,800 compared to what we would have done ourselves.

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Mason Stone

•8M

I actually tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and WOW. I'm blown away by how helpful it was! I had a similar situation (I make $95k, husband around $8k) with two kids, and was going to file separately thinking it would help. The tool showed we'd lose almost $3,200 by filing separately vs jointly! It also explained exactly why - with lower income we'd lose part of the child tax credit, education credits, and some retirement deductions. The comparison page made it super clear. Definitely worth checking out if you're on the fence about how to file with income differences between spouses.

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Christian Bierman

•8M

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Christian Bierman

•8M

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Lucas Lindsey

•8M

I was super skeptical about Claimyr (see my comment above) but I tried it yesterday out of pure frustration after spending 3 days trying to reach someone at the IRS about my child tax credit issue. I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong - IT ACTUALLY WORKS. Got connected to a real IRS agent in about 20 minutes. The agent answered my questions about claiming my son on alternating years with my ex. Turns out I was eligible for more of the credit than I thought based on our custody arrangement. Saved me from making a $1,400 mistake on my taxes.

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Sophie Duck

•8M

One thing nobody mentioned - the Child Tax Credit is different from the Child and Dependent Care Credit. If you're paying for daycare/preschool, that's a separate credit you may qualify for. Up to $3,000 per child ($6,000 max) in expenses, though the actual credit is a percentage of that based on your income. With married filing jointly, you'll almost certainly come out ahead for both credits. MFJ also gives you higher income thresholds for other deductions and credits.

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Sophie Duck

•8M

For the Child and Dependent Care Credit, both spouses generally need to have "earned income" (from wages, self-employment, etc.) to qualify. However, there's an exception if one spouse is a full-time student or is disabled - then they're considered to have earned income for this purpose. If your wife was actively looking for work, that unfortunately doesn't count as being employed. But if she was a full-time student for at least 5 months during the year, you could still qualify even with her minimal work income.

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Dmitry Sokolov

•5M

Just wanted to add my experience since I was in almost the exact same situation last year! My income was around $98k and my husband made about $800 from a few months of part-time work. We have twin 3-year-olds. I spent way too much time researching this and even considered filing separately thinking it might help with the child tax credit. But after running the numbers (and talking to a tax professional), filing jointly was definitely the way to go. We got the full $4,000 child tax credit for both kids, plus we qualified for other benefits we would have lost filing separately. The key thing to remember is that when you're married filing jointly, it doesn't matter which spouse "claims" the child - the credit applies to your household income. Your combined income of ~$105k is well below the phase-out threshold, so you'll get the full credit either way. Save yourself the headache and file jointly! The math almost always works out better for married couples, especially when there's a big income difference like yours.

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