Why is my child tax credit showing as $0 for my 2025 filing?

Thanks so much for responding! I went back and double-checked everything in the dependents section. I definitely answered that they lived with me the entire year and they're both my biological children. I even tried deleting and re-entering their information, but I'm still getting $0 for the credit. One thing I just realized - could it be because I received monthly advance payments earlier in the year? I vaguely remember getting some deposits labeled "CTC" but I thought those were separate from the tax time credit.

Yes, that's likely exactly what's happening! The advance Child Tax Credit payments you received during the year are essentially prepayments of the credit you would normally claim on your tax return. Whatever amount you received in advance gets subtracted from the total credit amount you're eligible for. If you received the full amount of your eligible credit through those monthly payments, then your remaining credit at tax time would show as $0. This doesn't mean you're not getting the credit - you've already received it throughout the year instead of as a lump sum at tax time. TurboTax should show this reconciliation somewhere in the Child Tax Credit section.

Does this taxr thing actually work? I'm having similar problems with my dependent care credit showing up wrong. Would it be able to tell me if I'm entering something incorrectly? I've already spent like 3 hours on the phone with TurboTax support and they were totally unhelpful.

I'm a bit skeptical about these tax checking services. How exactly does it find errors that you missed yourself? And is it secure to upload all your tax documents to some random website?

It absolutely works. It basically reviews all your inputs and cross-references them against tax rules to catch inconsistencies or things that don't add up. For your dependent care credit issue, it would definitely help identify what's causing the problem. As for security, I was concerned about that too initially. But they use bank-level encryption and don't store your documents permanently after analysis. Plus they explain exactly what's wrong in plain English, not tax jargon. I was surprised by how simple the explanation was for my error.

Wait, how does this actually work? Does someone else wait on hold for you? That seems too good to be true. The IRS put me on hold for 2+ hours last time I called.

This sounds like a complete scam. There's no way some service can magically get you to the front of the IRS phone line. They're probably just taking your money and you're still waiting forever.

They use an automated system that waits in the queue for you. It monitors the hold music and when it detects that a representative is about to pick up, it calls your phone and connects you. You don't have to sit there listening to the hold music for hours. And no, it's definitely not a scam. It doesn't get you to the "front of the line" - you're still in the same queue as everyone else. The difference is you don't have to actively wait on the phone. You can go about your day and they call you when an agent is about to answer. Saved me from wasting an entire afternoon last tax season.

I double-checked and I definitely selected "Head of Household" as my filing status. And I made sure to answer that nobody else can claim my kids as dependents. I'm starting to think it might be related to those advance payments I received throughout the year, as someone mentioned above. I'm going to look for a letter the IRS should have sent (Letter 6419) that supposedly shows how much I received in advance. That might explain why it's showing as $0 now - I might have already received the full amount!

Yes, that's likely the answer then! The advance payments can definitely explain it. The Letter 6419 will show exactly how much you received in advance payments. Many people are surprised at tax time because they forget those monthly deposits were essentially "pre-refunding" the Child Tax Credit that would normally come at tax time. If you can't find the letter, you can also check your IRS online account which should show the total advance payments. Just to be sure everything is calculating correctly in your return.

The phase-out for Child Tax Credit starts at $200,000 for single/head of household filers in 2025. OP mentioned making around $75K, so that shouldn't be the issue here. More likely it's the advance payment situation others have mentioned.