Here's what you are missing:

While it was possible to discern that the hybrid tax credit itself cannot exceed the amount of taxes paid, what was not disclosed was the order in which the credit would be applied.

In other words, they put it at the bottom of the list. Had they published this beforehand, then we would have known that it would be applied after our additional child tax credit - which we were aware would put us past the zero point of taxes owed. If, as we had assumed and had little reason to doubt, the hybrid tax credit were applied before the additional child tax credit, then our refund (or payout if you prefer) could at least have been maximized to the full $3000 ($1000 per our 3 children).

The bottom line is that this information was not published on the IRS site with respect to the order it would be applied. It seemed that the only people who were ironically truly honest about this so called credit were the people who sold us the car! All they would offer up is that they knew there were credits available, end of story.

What is truly wrong with our tax system is the number of if, ands, or buts, and the number of loopholes that a person needs to be a tax expert to fully take advantage of well before ever going to a CPA to file a 1040. It's ridiculous that the only people who can be fully informed must do so much research of the actual tax code or enlist the paid services of a CPA beforehand. Most of us don't have that luxury of time or money.

Frankly, I AM happy to be getting as much of a refund as we are, however this slight of hand with tax credits is a slap in the face to middle class people who would otherwise actually receive the credit IF THEY MADE MORE MONEY!

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