What this line means
The sum of all refundable credits and other payments from lines 27a through 31. This includes the Earned Income Credit, Additional Child Tax Credit, American Opportunity Credit (refundable portion), refundable adoption credit, and any Schedule 3 Part II credits. These amounts are added to your withholding and estimated payments to calculate your total payments on line 33.
Does this apply to you?
- Every filer with amounts on any of lines 27a through 31 completes this line
- This is a simple addition of lines 27a + 28 + 29 + 30 + 31
- If you have no refundable credits, this line is zero
Easy to overlook
Refundable credits are more valuable than withholding adjustments These credits generate actual cash refunds even when your tax is zero. A filer with $5,000 in refundable credits on line 32 and zero tax liability receives a $5,000 refund. This makes credits like the EIC and Additional CTC some of the most valuable items on the entire return for low-to-moderate income filers. 1 General filing pattern — refundable credits missed in total
Each credit on lines 27-31 has its own eligibility rules You cannot assume that qualifying for one refundable credit means you qualify for all of them. The EIC has earned income requirements, the Additional CTC needs qualifying children and earned income above $2,500, and the AOC requires current enrollment in higher education. Each credit must be evaluated independently. 2 IRS Form 1040 instructions — Line 32 computation
Watch out for this
Adding the amounts incorrectly on paper returns. With five potential sub-lines, paper filers sometimes skip a line or transpose numbers. Since these are refundable credits that directly increase your refund, an addition error here directly reduces the refund you receive.
Footnotes
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IRS Form 1040 Instructions. See also IRS Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf ↩
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IRS Form 1040 Instructions, Line 32. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040 ↩