Child Tax Credit
Also called: CTC, child benefit
The Child Tax Credit reduces tax for each qualifying child, with part of it refundable so lower-income families receive value even with no tax owed. It phases out above income thresholds keyed to MAGI. Its temporary 2021 expansion — larger, fully refundable and paid monthly — cut US child poverty sharply and lapsed the following year, making it one of the clearest natural experiments in modern tax policy.