Nonrefundable Credits

Nonrefundable tax credits can reduce tax liability to $0. The Nonrefundable Tax Credits section in Scenario Analysis allows for modeling various types of nonrefundable tax credits!

Any scenario created by copying a scenario generated from the original tax return will carry with it certain Nonrefundable Credits from the original return. 

For this section, always delete the “Nonrefundable Tax Credits (Calculation Override)” fields for new scenarios, because Holistiplan will calculate the new amount of Nonrefundable Credits based on the year of the scenario. If the Override field isn't deleted, the system will apply the amount of the Override field as the amount of Nonrefundable credits, which may not be accurate. Additional instructions on clearing overrides can be found here.

As an example below, we have copied Peter and Paula's 2025 tax return and updated their Dependent Care Credit Expenses for 2026. Their calculated Total Nonrefundable Tax Credit in 2026 is $3,100. The value is currently light gray, and there is a message that it is"(overridden)".

This override is in place due to copying the return, and the amount of nonrefundable credit from last year is in the "Nonrefundable Tax Credits (Calculation Override)" field. Last year's credit was $3,300.  Delete the value in the override field and leave it blank. One cleared, the scenario uses the calculated credit amount of $3,100, instead of the override value of $3,300.



Based on the year of the scenario, some credits may show up as a nonrefundable credit one year and as a refundable credit in other years. One example of this is the Child Tax Credit, which was nonrefundable in 2020, refundable in 2021, and then reverted back to non-refundable in 2022. Credits may also be partially refundable and nonrefundable. If you don’t see a credit when you expect to see one, check to see if it’s moved from the nonrefundable to the refundable credits section.

The Nonrefundable Education Credit, Adoption Credit, and Other Nonrefundable Tax Credits subsections can be expanded to provide further detail on those credits, as seen below.

Nonrefundable Education Credit

Adoption Credit
More information on modeling the Adoption Credit can be found here.

Other Nonrefundable Tax Credits