The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit. If you qualify for the EITC you may get money back when you file your taxes or if you owe taxes, it may reduce the amount of federal taxes you owe. The main requirement to qualify is that you must earn money from working.
To qualify for the EITC, you must:
The amount of EITC you may get depends on your income
2022 Earned Income Tax Credit (for taxes due April 2023)
Number of children | Maximum earned income tax credit | Maximum Adjusted Gross income (AGI), Single, Head of Household filers | Maximum Adjusted Gross income (AGI), Married Filing Joint filers |
0 | $560 | $16,480 | $22,610 |
1 | $3,733 | $43,492 | $49,622 |
2 | $6,164 | $49,399 | $55,529 |
3 or more | $6,935 | $53,057 | $59,187 |
You cannot claim the federal EITC if you file your taxes with an ITIN. However, if you live in California, you are eligible to claim the CalEITC with an ITIN. For more information regarding CalEITC, view this website.
For the 2021 tax year, the legislation lifted the age cap and also tripled the maximum credit for workers without children to $1,502. There is no maximum age limit for eligible workers. You may also qualify for EITC if you are:
Yes. According to the IRS, if you claim the EITC, your tax refund could be delayed. Unfortunately, by law, the IRS can’t issue EITC refunds before
mid-February. You can file your tax return as soon as you have all of your tax documents and the IRS expects you to see most EITC related refunds within your bank account or on debit cards by March.
If you are your spouse were a nonresident alien for any part of the tax year, you can only claim the EITC if your filing status is married filing jointly and you or your spouse is a:
Are there other credits I should know about?
Yes! California also has an EITC program called CalEITC. Click here to check that page of our website. You can also check this page of our website for other programs like the Child Tax Credit and Economic Stimulus Programs