Child Tax Credit

Becoming a new dad is a great thing. Every day is full of rewards and blessings. One extra blessing Braden has brought to our family is about to pay off literally. It's tax season and the big bad IRS wants your money. In our case we will be getting a refund and this year we are armed with a new weapon....Braden. He is our little tax credit.

The child tax credit can add up to $1000 to your bottom line for each qualifying child. That goes a long way towards diapers and formula for us new dads. I assume for older kids it goes a long way towards something else. Credit is the greatest word in the tax vocabulary and we are glad to add one to our return.

The great thing about having a child late in the year is the US government gives you credit for the enitre year no matter when you have the baby. To get the child tax credit your child has to live with you for at least half of the year. There is an exeption that states:

"A child is considered to have lived with you for all of 2008 if the child was born or died in 2008 and your home was this child's home for the entire time he or she was alive."

Our son was born in November so we basically get 10 free months of parenthood. Everyone should try and have children late in the year. After all this is one of the only times the government ever gives anything away for free so we all need to take advantage. In closing I would like to thank the IRS for giving me some free months of parenthood for tax purposes. It may not be the greatest gift ever but as far as government entities go I think we should consider it a blessing.