There are two types of tax credits.

Refundable - you get back the full amount of the tax credit even if you have no tax liability

Non-refundable - you only get a tax break to the extent of your income tax liability


Unfortunately, the credits you list in your question are non-refundable tax credits. So that means your diagnosis is correct.

I once had a client contact me during late December with a similar question. We determined that he and his fiance would save thousands of dollars in taxes if they got married by midnight on 12/31 - since she had all the credit eligible expenditures and his income was high enough to have taxes to offset but low enough to not have the credits phased out.

I don't recall if they pulled it off.

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