2027 Tax Refund Calculator with Dependents

How to Use This Calculator

Quick answer: Enter your annual income, the federal tax already withheld, your filing status, the number of qualifying children under 17 and any other dependents. The calculator applies the 2026 standard deduction, the seven federal brackets, the Child Tax Credit, the Other Dependent Credit, the refundable Additional Child Tax Credit and the EITC, then subtracts everything from your withholding to show your refund or balance due. Nothing is uploaded — every number is computed on your device.

1. Step 1: Enter annual income. Use total wages for the year, or your best projection if the year is still running. If you expect a raise, bonus or job change, estimate the full-year total instead of copying one recent pay stub.
2. Step 2: Enter federal income tax withheld. Add up the federal withholding box from every pay stub, or use last year's total if your situation is unchanged. Check your most recent pay stub rather than your take-home amount, because take-home already includes FICA and any state tax.
3. Step 3: Choose your filing status. Single, married filing jointly and head of household each have their own bracket widths, standard deduction and credit phase-out thresholds. Most parents who pay more than half the costs of a home for a qualifying child qualify as head of household, which carries a larger deduction than single.
4. Step 4: Enter qualifying children under 17. Count each child who has a valid Social Security number, is your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child or descendant, and lived with you for more than half the year. Age matters: a child who turns 17 during the year does not generate the $2,200 Child Tax Credit.
5. Step 5: Enter other dependents. Adult children who miss the age test, parents you support, and relatives who live with you usually qualify for the $500 Other Dependent Credit instead of the Child Tax Credit.
6. Step 6: Enter pre-tax contributions. 401(k), 403(b) and HSA contributions reduce your adjusted gross income, which lowers tax and can protect credits that phase out with income.
7. Step 7: Click "Calculate My Refund." The result panel shows your refund as one number, with a full breakdown of tax, each credit, withholding and any amount you would owe.

What Counts as a Dependent for Your 2027 Refund

Dependents split into two groups for refund purposes, and the group a person falls into decides which credit appears on your return. A qualifying child generates the Child Tax Credit: the child must be under 17 at the end of the year, be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child or a descendant of any of them, live with you for more than half the year, and provide a valid Social Security number issued before the filing deadline. A qualifying child can also trigger the Earned Income Tax Credit for the household.

An other dependent covers everyone else you support: children who are 17 or older, parents you provide more than half their support for, siblings, grandparents and in-laws who meet the residency or support tests. Each of these dependents produces a nonrefundable $500 credit that never turns into cash but can wipe out tax you would otherwise pay. Married dependents filing jointly generally cannot be claimed unless they are filing only to claim a refund.

Support and residency tests are the two most common trip points. You must have provided more than half of the person's total support for the year, which includes housing, food, clothing, education and medical care. A child of divorced parents usually ties to the parent with more support. When two taxpayers could both claim the same person, the tie-breaker rules in the IRS instructions decide the outcome — typically the parent with the higher adjusted gross income.

Child Tax Credit 2027: $2,200 Per Qualifying Child

The Child Tax Credit is worth up to $2,200 for each qualifying child under 17. That amount was made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), which took effect in 2025 with no expiration date, so families can plan around the same per-child figure for 2027 rather than watching a temporary level lapse. 2027 figures on this page are projections built on that confirmed rule — the IRS has not yet published its 2027 inflation adjustment Revenue Procedure, so we label every projected number and keep the confirmed 2026 base visible.

Two limits decide what you actually keep. First, the credit phases out above $200,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single, head of household and married-filing-separately filers, and above $400,000 for married couples filing jointly. The reduction is $50 for each $1,000 (or fraction of $1,000) over the threshold, applied per child, so a two-child family loses twice as much per step. Second, the credit is nonrefundable on its own: it can eliminate tax, but it cannot push a refund higher than zero.

That is where the Additional Child Tax Credit comes in. Whatever portion of the $2,200 your tax bill cannot absorb carries into the ACTC, which is refundable. The refundable portion is capped at $1,700 per child for current figures and equals 15% of earned income above $2,500, so low earners with little tax liability still receive real money back. Confirm the 2027 ACTC amount at publish, because Congress can adjust the refundable cap.

Worked Example 1: Two Kids, Head of Household, $52,000

This is the most common family profile in our data: one earner, head of household status, two young children, moderate withholding. Every figure below was produced by running this page's calculator code, so you can reproduce it by entering the same inputs.

Notice the order of operations: the $4,400 Child Tax Credit first erases the entire $2,988 tax bill, and the leftover $1,412 does not vanish — it converts into the refundable ACTC. The EITC stacks on top because it is refundable by design, which is why families with children at this income level commonly receive more in credits than they ever owed in tax.

Worked Example 2: Single Parent, One Child, $34,000

Lower income means a smaller tax bill but a larger share of the credit refundable, and the EITC still has room to run because the credit is far from its phase-out point.

Roughly 63% of this refund comes from refundable credits rather than from money the taxpayer withheld. That distinction matters when you plan withholding: a family in this range can be under-withheld all year and still receive a large refund, while a family with the same wages and no dependents may owe money instead.

Worked Example 3: Seeing the Phase-Out at $430,000 Joint

Phase-outs do not switch off a credit abruptly; they nibble $50 per $1,000 of income. A married couple filing jointly with two children and $430,000 of income sits $30,000 over the $400,000 threshold, which is 30 steps of $1,000, so each child loses 30 × $50 = $1,500 and the $2,200 per-child credit shrinks to $700 each.

The same household with no dependents would compute a smaller credit total and a different refund, because the $1,400 of remaining Child Tax Credit is the only dependent-driven piece left at this income. Run both versions of your income through the calculator to see exactly what each dependent is worth in your situation.

The $500 Other Dependent Credit

Dependents who fail the "under 17" test still matter. The Other Dependent Credit is worth $500 for each qualifying person who does not qualify for the Child Tax Credit — a 17-year-old high school senior, a college student you support, an aging parent who lives with you, or a relative such as a niece or grandchild. It is nonrefundable, meaning it reduces tax to zero but never creates a refund on its own.

Consider a married couple filing jointly earning $62,000 with one qualifying child and one parent in the household: taxable income of $29,800 produces $3,080 of federal tax, the $2,200 Child Tax Credit and the $500 Other Dependent Credit combine for $2,700, and tax falls to $380. Withholding of $4,500 then yields a $4,120 refund. Stack both counts in the calculator — every dependent in the household deserves to be entered, not just the children.

Earned Income Tax Credit With Kids in 2027

The EITC is the second engine of a family refund. It rises with earnings, plateaus, then phases out, and unlike the Child Tax Credit it is fully refundable, so it pays out even when your tax bill is zero. The credit depends on earned income, adjusted gross income, filing status and the number of qualifying children. For tax year 2026, the confirmed maximums are:

Two details decide eligibility in practice. First, thresholds: with one child, the maximum credit begins once earned income reaches $13,020, holds through the plateau, then phases out from $23,890 of income until it reaches zero at $51,593 for a single filer; married joint filers get $7,270 more at each threshold. Second, investment income — interest, dividends and capital gains — must stay under $12,200 for 2026 or the credit disappears entirely, regardless of wages. 2027 amounts are indexed upward for inflation and will be updated here once the IRS publishes them.

Because the EITC and Child Tax Credit use different tests, a household can claim both. The calculator runs them together: it computes the CTC and ACTC first, then adds the EITC, which is exactly how Form 1040 handles the ordering. Use our EITC calculator for a dedicated eligibility check, and our Child Tax Credit guide for the full age, residency and Social Security number rules.

Child and Dependent Care Credit

If you paid someone to care for a child or dependent so you could work or look for work, a separate nonrefundable credit may apply. Qualifying care includes daycare, before- and after-school programs, day camps and household employees, and the credit is calculated as a percentage of a capped amount of care expenses, with the percentage falling as income rises. Rules and dollar limits changed recently, so read our Child and Dependent Care Credit page before claiming it. Enter any resulting credit in your withholding review so the savings show up during the year instead of as a surprise at filing.

Are We Getting a Bigger Tax Refund in 2027?

It depends on who "we" is. Using the calculator with the same $52,000 head-of-household income and $3,200 of withholding, a household with no dependents receives a $212 refund — just the leftover withholding after a $2,988 tax bill. Turn on two qualifying children and the same inputs produce a $6,008 refund: $1,412 of refundable ACTC plus $1,396 of EITC stacked onto the withholding. That is a difference of about $5,796 created entirely by dependent credits.

Three forces push family refunds higher for the return you file in 2027: the permanent $2,200 Child Tax Credit, a larger inflation-adjusted standard deduction of $16,100 single and $32,200 joint for 2026 figures, and any withholding you did not adjust after a life change. Two forces push the other way: a raise that lifts you toward a phase-out, and a W-4 that was never updated after a child turned 17. The honest answer is that families who recheck withholding each year get the bigger refund; families who assume last year's pattern usually do not.

2027 Numbers: Confirmed vs Projected

We separate what is law from what is forecast so you know how firm each figure is. Confirmed numbers come from published IRS guidance; projected numbers are our best estimate for 2027 and are labeled everywhere they appear.

Withholding vs Refund When You Have Dependents

Credits you claim at filing and withholding you control during the year are two halves of the same number. On the new Form W-4, Step 3 lets you multiply expected dependent credits so your employer withholds less each pay period, which raises take-home pay instead of building a spring refund. If you prefer the refund as forced savings, leave Step 3 blank and keep the status quo. If you expect a balance due — perhaps after a second job or a spouse's raise — use Step 4(c) for additional withholding.

A common mistake is claiming dependents on the W-4 while also claiming them on last year's return with a different income, which double-counts the benefit. Review the projection whenever a child crosses age 17, when a parent moves in, or when income changes by more than a few thousand dollars. Our tax refund calculator shows the same math without dependent credits, which makes a useful before-and-after comparison, and our bigger refund guide lists other legitimate adjustments. When you are ready to compare the full 2027 picture, start from the 2027 tax refund calculator hub, which links every dependent, bracket and state tool in one place.

How to Read Your Results Panel

The hero line is either your estimated federal refund or an amount owed, and the note beneath it shows your effective rate, marginal rate and dependent counts. Below that, the breakdown follows the order the IRS applies your numbers: income and deduction first, then tax before credits, then each credit on its own row, then tax after nonrefundable credits, withholding and the final balance. Compare the Child Tax Credit row with the Refundable ACTC row to see how much of your credit turned into cash, and watch the Earned Income Tax Credit row for the refundable boost that never touched your tax bill. When a dependent count changes, rerun the estimate rather than guessing at the difference.

When Families Get Their 2027 Refund

E-filed returns that request direct deposit typically arrive within 21 days of IRS acceptance, while paper returns take six to eight weeks. The IRS opens Where's My Refund tracking 24 hours after e-filing, so you can check status before the money lands. Households claiming the Additional Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit follow the same schedule, although the PATH Act hold that applies to those returns lifts in mid-February and can delay a few days of very early filers. Plan around official dates instead of a marketing promise, then use our IRS refund schedule and Where's My Refund guides for the current calendar.