Filing

• Child tax credits are distributed yearly to taxpayers when they file their federal income taxes. Parents may claim the child tax credit once per child per year. If the parents of one or more dependents are divorced, only one parent can claim the credit per child. Parents filing separate returns may opt to split the number of credits evenly if they have multiple dependent children or file on alternate years in which they claim the child tax credit.
  
  

Withholding Adjustments

• Though the child tax credit is only available once per year when you file your federal income taxes, you can take advantage of the tax break early. If you have income tax withheld from your paycheck, ask your employer to let you complete a new Form W-4 to adjust your withholding amounts or claim additional dependents. This will reduce the amount of money taken from your paycheck and in turn will reduce the amount of refundable tax when you file, meaning you keep more money in your pocket each pay period.
  
  

Non-Refundable Credit

• There are two types of IRS tax credits: refundable and nonrefundable. The child tax credit is a nonrefundable credit, meaning it will only lower your tax liability. For example, if you have three dependent children under age 17 who qualify for the tax credit, and your total tax bill before the credit is $2,900, the credit will more than eliminate your tax liability. However, because the credit is nonrefundable, you cannot claim a refund for the remaining $100
  
  

Previous Returns

• If you filed previous tax returns or this year's return without claiming your child tax credit, it may not be too late to redeem your money. The IRS allows you to amend a tax return filed up to three years ago using Form 1040X. For example, in 2011, you can file Form 1040X to amend your 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010 tax return. To complete the form, you must have your original tax return information available, as the IRS requires you to list both the erroneously filed information and the new, correct information on the same form.