What Is a Tax Credit? | Financial Terms

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A tax credit is a great benefit because it reduces dollar for dollar the amount of tax that you owe at the end of the day. Some of the more common tax credits that are out there might be for a child tax credit or tax credits for depending care expenses or higher education expenses that you may occur. So let me give you an example, let's say I calculated out my taxes and I owe $20,000 in taxes this year, but I was eligible for a thousand dollar child tax credit for one of my children, instead of owing $20,000 in taxes I now owe $19,000 in taxes, and that's tremendous. Again credits are dollar for dollar per deduction in the amount of taxes you owe. So taking advantage of that credit just put an extra $1000 in my pocket. So what I would ask everybody watching this to do, is really make sure, go through your tax returns, go through all the available credits and make sure your taking credits for everything you're entitled to. Because a lot of people are missing out on credits they were eligible for and it ends up costing them quite a bit of money that they could have had, and it's all legal. Taking credits is part of the IRS guidelines in reducing taxes for certain individuals depending on your situation. So review your taxes and make sure you're taking all your credits that you're eligible for.