Who Qualifies for the Young Child Tax Credit

The YCTC has a gatekeeper requirement: you must qualify for CalEITC. That means earned income under roughly $30,950 (2024), California residency, and age 18 or older. If you pass those tests, the YCTC adds one more condition:

• You must have at least one qualifying child who is under age 6 as of the last day of the tax year (December 31)

That’s it. No separate income test beyond the CalEITC threshold. No additional residency requirements. No minimum number of months the child lived with you beyond what CalEITC already requires. If you qualify for CalEITC and have a young child, you qualify for YCTC.

The child must be under 6 on December 31 of the tax year. A child who turns 6 on December 30? Still qualifies. A child who turns 6 on January 2 of the following year? Still qualifies for the prior year. A child born on November 15 of the tax year? Qualifies for the full credit that year, even though they were only alive for six weeks of it. Birth date timing can feel arbitrary, but those are the rules.

How Much Is the Credit Worth?

For the 2024 tax year, the maximum YCTC is approximately $1,117 per return. A few things to note about this number:

• It’s per return, not per child. Whether you have one child under 6 or four children under 6, the maximum credit is the same $1,117. This surprises people who expect a per-child multiplier like the federal Child Tax Credit.
• It phases out as income rises. At the lowest earned income levels, you get the full credit. As your earned income increases toward the CalEITC phase-out range, the YCTC amount decreases. The exact phase-out math is embedded in the FTB Form 3514 worksheet.
• It’s refundable. If your California tax liability is zero (which it often is at these income levels), you still get the full credit as a cash refund.

At $1,117, the YCTC by itself isn’t life-changing. But it’s not meant to stand alone. Pair it with CalEITC ($800–$1,200 depending on income and children) and the federal EITC (potentially $5,000–$7,430 depending on family size), and the combined package starts to add up to real money for a family earning $20,000–$25,000 a year.

ITIN Filers Qualify Here Too

Just like CalEITC, the Young Child Tax Credit is available to filers using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. You don’t need a Social Security number. This is the same policy rationale California applies to CalEITC: if you’re working, paying taxes, and raising young children in California, the state wants you to have access to these credits regardless of immigration status. The federal EITC, by contrast, requires a valid SSN under IRC Section 32(c)(1)(E).

For an ITIN filer with two children under 6 and earned income of $18,000, the combined CalEITC + YCTC refund could exceed $2,000. That family can’t claim the federal EITC (requires SSN), so the California credits are the only earned income credits available to them. For these families, CalEITC and YCTC aren’t supplemental — they’re the entire safety net on the tax side.

The Combined Credit Stack: A Real-World Example

Let’s put actual numbers together. Take a single parent in Los Angeles with two children, ages 2 and 4, earning $22,000 from a W-2 job. Here’s what the credit picture looks like:

• Federal EITC (with SSN): approximately $5,800
• Federal Child Tax Credit: $2,000 per child = $4,000 (partially refundable at $1,700 per child)
• CalEITC: approximately $1,000
• YCTC: approximately $1,117

Total refundable credits: roughly $9,200–$11,900 depending on exact circumstances. On $22,000 of income, that’s a 42–54% effective boost. This is why tax preparation assistance programs in California emphasize filing returns even when income is below the filing threshold — the refundable credits are worth too much to skip.

Now consider the same family but with an ITIN instead of SSN. They lose the federal EITC ($5,800) and get a reduced federal CTC. But they keep CalEITC ($1,000) and YCTC ($1,117). Those California credits become the primary source of refundable tax benefits. Every dollar matters.

How to Claim: Same Form as CalEITC

The YCTC is claimed on FTB Form 3514 — the same form used for CalEITC. There’s no separate form to file. The 3514 has a dedicated section (Part III) for the YCTC calculation. You enter your qualifying child’s date of birth, the form checks that they’re under 6, and it computes the credit based on your earned income level. See the FTB’s CalEITC & YCTC information page for current-year details.

Most tax software handles this automatically. If you indicate California residency, enter a dependent under age 6, and your earned income falls under the CalEITC threshold, the software should generate both credits on Form 3514 and flow them to Form 540. If you’re doing your return by hand or using a free filing tool, make sure you’re completing Part III of the 3514 — we’ve seen filers claim CalEITC but skip the YCTC section, leaving money behind.

Common Mistakes and Missed Opportunities

The biggest mistake is simply not knowing the credit exists. The YCTC doesn’t get the same publicity as the federal Child Tax Credit, and a lot of eligible families skip it. Other mistakes we see:

• Not filing a California return at all — Some low-income filers only file a federal return because they think they don’t owe California tax. That’s true — they probably don’t owe. But they’re leaving $1,000–$2,000+ in refundable California credits on the table.
• Forgetting Part III of Form 3514 — CalEITC gets claimed, but the YCTC section gets skipped. Both credits live on the same form.
• Assuming it’s per child — The credit is per return. Having a second or third child under 6 doesn’t increase the maximum beyond $1,117.
• Missing the age cutoff — The child must be under 6 on December 31. A child who turned 6 in March is not eligible, even though they were 5 for most of the year.

For more on how credits, deductions, and tax calculations fit together, see our full CA Form 540 line-by-line guide.

Sources & References

• California RTC Section 17052.1 — Young Child Tax Credit Statute
• FTB CalEITC & YCTC Information Page
• FTB Form 3514 — California Earned Income Tax Credit (2024)
• IRS — Child Tax Credit Overview
• 26 U.S.C. § 32 — Federal Earned Income Tax Credit