• Additional rebates for the taxpayers with children.playful child image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
  
  Tax rebates and credits are used by the U.S. taxpayers to reduce their annual tax liability. The taxpayers with children have even more opportunities to take advantage of the available IRS tax credits. Depending on your adjusted gross income, certain tax rebates may be available to offset your tax bill or eliminate it completely. Prior to settling any tax obligations, families with children should analyze their dependent exemptions, eligibility for dependent care expenses credit, child tax credit as well as the additional child tax credit.
  
  

Qualifying Child - Definition

• The IRS provides a number of child tax credits and rebates to the taxpayers with children if your child meets the IRS definition of a qualifying child. Generally, a qualifying child is a child, a stepchild, or a grandchild under the age of 17, for whom you provided more than half of the support during the tax year. Additionally, a qualifying child should be a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien and should live with the taxpayer for more than six months of any given tax year.
  
  

Dependency Exemption

• IRS allows a dependency exemption for each qualifying child who does not file a joint tax return with his or her spouse. If in doubt whether you can claim a dependency exemption for your child on your tax return, IRS table "Dependency Exemption for Qualifying Child" should be utilized to make the correct determination. It is important to note that taxpayers, who are claimed as dependents on another person's tax return, are not allowed to claim a dependency exemption for anyone else despite the fact that they may have a qualifying child.
  
  

Child Tax Credit

• Child tax credit is a tax credit that is available for each qualifying child. In 2009, a maximum child tax credit in the amount of $1,000 was available for each qualifying child under the age of 17. Just like the majority of the IRS credits and rebates, child tax credit is subject to a phaseout depending on the two key factors: adjusted gross income and the number of the qualifying children. IRS provides a Child Tax Credit worksheet to assist the taxpayers in calculating their child tax credit.
  
  

Additional Child Tax Credit

• Certain individuals may qualify for the additional child tax credit. Additional child tax credit may be available even if there is no tax owed on the tax returns. In case where there is no tax liability, it would simply result in a tax refund due from the IRS to the filer. However, prior to determining whether you qualify for such rebate, you should first calculate a standard child tax credit and then utilize the IRS Form 8812 to calculate any additional child tax credit.
  
  

Credit for Dependent Care Expenses

• Credit for dependent care expenses is available to the lower income taxpayers. This credit is limited to the qualifying children under the age of 13 for whom a dependency exemption is claimed. According to the IRS Publication 503, the percentage of the dependent care expenses may be claimed depending on the adjusted gross income of the taxpayer.