I’m not saying that you had kids for the tax breaks, but no one at Briefly Taxing would judge you if this consideration didn’t play a small role in the decision to bring your dependents (children, rather) into the world.  With that having been said, let's talk about the 2021 child tax credit. Congress Had Kids, Too (Apparently) Like a groundhog seeing its shadow in February, at some point in 1997, Congress chanced upon its collective parental conscience, and enacted what is now referred to as the Child Tax Credit.  The Child Tax Credit hearkens back to a chilly October day in 1976, when the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit was established.  Only one year prior, Congress enacted the Earned Income Tax Credit. In bygone years, there was even a dependency exemption, but this exemption went the way of Old Yeller and itemized deductions with the tax reform in…