15 — Excess Credit Over Tax Updated for tax year 2025

What this line means

The amount of child tax credit that exceeds your tax liability. You subtract the nonrefundable child tax credit used on line 14b from the total child tax credit after phaseout on line 10. If the result is greater than zero, you may qualify for the additional child tax credit — a refundable credit that pays you even when you owe no tax. This line only includes the CTC excess, not the credit for other dependents.

Does this apply to you?

• Your child tax credit exceeds your tax liability and you want to see if the excess is refundable
• You have qualifying children and your tax liability is low relative to your credit amount

Easy to overlook

Only the child tax credit excess qualifies for refundability The excess from the credit for other dependents is not included on this line and cannot become refundable. If you have $4,400 in CTC (two children at $2,200 each) and $500 in other dependents credit but only $3,000 in tax liability, only the $1,400 excess CTC flows here. The $500 other dependents credit is limited to the remaining tax liability. ¹ [SOURCE: IRC Section 24(d) — additional child tax credit eligibility]

A zero on this line means the nonrefundable credit covered everything If your tax liability was large enough to absorb the full CTC, line 15 is zero and you do not need to complete the additional child tax credit section. You already received the full benefit as a direct tax reduction. ² [SOURCE: IRS Schedule 8812 instructions — line 15 computation]

Watch out for this

Including the credit for other dependents in this calculation. Line 15 is only about the child tax credit excess — line 10 minus line 14b. The credit for other dependents from line 12 does not flow into the additional child tax credit calculation. Only the CTC has a refundable component.

Related lines on your return

• Line 10 — Schedule 8812 — Credit after phaseout; the full CTC available
• Line 14b — Schedule 8812 — Nonrefundable CTC used; subtracted from line 10
• Line 17 — Schedule 8812 — Initial additional credit amount; starts with this excess