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Having a baby is such a wonderful blessing, but along with the tremendous amount of joy comes a large amount of new expenses. The federal government offers a number of tax breaks to help parents save money on their tax bill.
For 2016, you can claim a $4,050 exemption by adding your child as a dependent. This will reduce the amount of income which you will be taxed on. This is not a prorated amount, meaning that you qualify for the entire amount no matter what time of the year the child was born. For example, a married couple with one child would qualify for three exemptions, even if that baby was born in December of the year.
There is a phase-out on the dependent exemption that applies once your adjusted gross income exceeds $259,400 for single filers, $285,350 for head of household, $155,650 for married filing separately, and $311,300 for married couples filing jointly in 2016.
The child tax credit provides a credit of $1,000. A credit is different than a deduction in that it reduces the amount of the tax bill dollar for dollar compared to a deduction that reduces the amount of income you are being taxed on.
There is a phase-out for the child tax credit which starts when your income is above $110,000 for married couples filing jointly, $75,000 for single filers and head of household, or $55,000 for married filing separately.
The child care credit provides a credit for the costs you pay for a qualifying individual while you and your spouse, if you are married filing jointly, work or look for work.
The dollar limit on the amount of the expenses you can use to figure the credit is $3,000 for the care of one child under age thirteen or $6,000 for two or more children under age thirteen. The amount of your credit is between 20-35 percent of your allowable expenses. There is not a complete phase-out for this credit, but the credit decreases as the amount of income increases. Families with an adjusted gross income of $43,000 or more will only be able to take 20% of allowable expenses.
