With the "additional child tax credit" we have always been able to get a refund of more than what we actually paid in (due to our relatively moderate income and having 4 children), but the Hope Credit for college tuition can ONLY be used to *reduce* tax liability (but not to less than 0)....which one is "credited" FIRST? i.e. if the hope credit comes off first, then we can still get the additional $ from the child tax credit...but if the child tax credit is "applied" first, then the Hope credit won't benefit us at all (even though we've paid out-of-pocket tuition of over $4,500 this year!

By Marg on Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 07:37 am:

education credits come off at line 50, attach form 8863. (this decreases your tax liability) Liability can not go past 0 or into negative.

Additional child tax credit are at line 68, attach from 8812 (this increases your payments). The more of lines 64-71 will increase your refund.

Hope it helps.

If your income is under a certain level you can go to the IRS website and pick a secured tax site and efile for free.