The credit for other dependents is a nonrefundable $500 amount allowed for each dependent who is not a qualifying child for the child tax credit. It has no Code section of its own. Section 24(h)(4)(A) increases the credit determined under section 24(a) by $500 for each dependent of the taxpayer as defined in section 152, other than a qualifying child described in subsection (c) (26 U.S.C. 24(h)(4)(A)).
An Increase in the Child Tax Credit, Not a Second Credit
That structure decides how the amount behaves everywhere else on the return. Because it is an increase in the section 24 credit rather than a credit standing on its own, it shares that credit’s income threshold, its schedule and its line on Form 1040.
Schedule 8812 makes the arithmetic visible. Line 6 counts the other dependents, including any qualifying children who are not under age 17 or who do not have the required social security number, line 7 multiplies that count by $500, and line 8 adds the result to the child tax credit figure above it (IRS, Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025)).
Only one figure leaves the schedule. Line 14 is the smaller of line 12 and line 13, and it carries both credits together to Form 1040 line 19, which reads child tax credit or credit for other dependents from Schedule 8812 (IRS, Form 1040 (2025)). Which of the two a given person feeds is decided further up the page, in the Credits row of the Dependents block, and the same person can never be checked for both (IRS, Instructions for Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025)).
Why It Never Comes Back as a Refund
Nonrefundable is a consequence of the statute here, not a label attached afterwards. Section 24(h)(5) directs that the refundable computation in subsection (d)(1)(A) be applied without regard to paragraph (4), so the other-dependent additions never reach it (26 U.S.C. 24(h)(5)).
The instructions state the working version of that: a filer cannot take the additional child tax credit if the only thing being claimed is the credit for other dependents (IRS, Instructions for Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025)). How the refundable computation runs for children who do qualify is set out in ACTC tax credit, and the general split between the two kinds of credit is in tax credit.
The Amount Does Not Move, and It No Longer Expires
Two amounts in section 24 are indexed and this is not one of them. Section 24(i) adjusts the $1,400 refundable cap in subsection (h)(5) for years after 2024 and the $2,200 credit amount in subsection (h)(2) for years after 2025, and the $500 in subsection (h)(4)(A) appears in neither adjustment (26 U.S.C. 24(i)).
The end date is gone as well. Subsection (h) used to apply only to a taxable year beginning before January 1, 2026, and section 70104(a) of Public Law 119-21 struck that phrase and replaced the subsection heading 2018 Through 2025 with Beginning After 2017 (Public Law 119-21, section 70104). What else that act changed for firm work is in what the One Big Beautiful Bill changed for accounting firms.
Where the Income Limit Bites
Section 24(h)(3) sets it at $400,000 for a joint return and $200,000 in any other case, and section 24(b)(1) reduces the credit by $50 for each $1,000, or fraction of $1,000, by which modified adjusted gross income exceeds that threshold (26 U.S.C. 24).
Schedule 8812 runs it as one computation over line 8, rounding the excess up to the next multiple of $1,000 and taking 5% of it (IRS, Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025)). Two details are worth holding at review. The measure is modified adjusted gross income rather than plain adjusted gross income, and the reduction is a taper rather than a cliff, so a return a little over the threshold still keeps most of what it claimed.
What It Gets Confused With
The child tax credit is the usual mix-up. It runs on a qualifying child who has not attained age 17, it is the larger figure, and part of it can be paid out through the additional child tax credit (26 U.S.C. 24(c)). The other-dependent amount picks up everyone else the filer may claim, and who that reaches is settled entirely by the qualifying child and qualifying relative tests in dependents.
The confusion runs the other way too, toward the personal exemption. That is a deduction rather than a credit, and its amount is currently zero, so the same dependent who produces a credit here produces no exemption benefit at all.
Who Qualifies for the Credit for Other Dependents?
Four conditions have to hold at once. The person is claimed as a dependent on the return, cannot be used by that filer to claim the child tax credit or the additional child tax credit, was a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or U.S. resident alien, and has an SSN, ITIN or ATIN issued on or before the return’s due date including extensions (IRS, Instructions for Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025)).
The residency condition is narrower than the dependent test that feeds it, and that gap catches preparers. Section 24(h)(4)(B) withholds the increase from anyone who would not be a dependent if section 152(b)(3)(A) were applied without regard to all that follows the words resident of the United States, which strips out the contiguous-country branch of that rule (26 U.S.C. 24(h)(4)(B)). A relative living in Canada or Mexico can therefore be a dependent and still produce no credit, which is the case the IRS works through with a sibling’s child living in Mexico (IRS, Instructions for Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025)).
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