As you know, raising a family is a full time job and can put stress on your finances. Fortunately, you can claim a tax credit to help cut your IRS bill if you have kids.
Getting a Tax Credit for Your Kids
With a tax deduction, you are reducing the total amount of adjusted gross income you have. For instance, if you earned $50,000 dollars in 2005 and take a $1,000 deduction for something, youll have to pay tax on $49,000 dollars in earnings. Put another way, the $1,000 tax deduction will save you a hundred dollars or so in the amount you have to send to the IRS.
A tax credit is a beautiful thing. It is designed to reduce the amount of taxes you on a dollar for dollar basis. Taking our example above, you would not deduct a $1,000 tax credit from the $50,000 you earned. Instead, you would go to the tax tables and determine the amount of tax you owe on the $50,000. Lets say the tax tables reveal you owe $9,000. You would reduce this amount by the $1,000 tax credit and pay $8,000 dollars to Uncle Same. Put another way, tax credits are tax deductions on steroids!
If you are raising children, you may be able to claim a tax credit for each one. They must be...