Earned income tax credit: who qualifies and how much you get

The earned income tax credit pays up to $8,046 for 2025 and $8,231 for 2026

The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a refundable federal tax credit for people who work and earn a low to moderate income. For the 2025 tax year, filed in 2026, it is worth up to $8,046 with three or more qualifying children, $7,152 with two, $4,328 with one and $649 with none. According to Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the maximums for the 2026 tax year, filed in 2027, rise to $8,231, $7,316, $4,427 and $664.

Refundable means the IRS pays you the part of the credit that is larger than your tax bill. A single parent who owes $300 of federal income tax and qualifies for a $4,000 EITC gets the $3,700 difference as part of the refund.

You qualify if you have earned income from a job or self-employment, your income is below the limit for your family size and filing status, your investment income is no more than $11,950 for 2025 ($12,200 for 2026), and you, your spouse and any child you claim have a valid Social Security number. Workers without a qualifying child must also be aged 25 to 64.

Your wages drive the credit, so start with an accurate figure: work out your annual gross and take-home pay with the US paycheck calculator, then read the tables below.

EITC income limits and maximum credit for the 2025 tax year

For the 2025 tax year, your earned income and your adjusted gross income (AGI) must both be below the limit in this table, and your investment income must be $11,950 or less. According to the IRS EITC tables page, these are the limits for returns filed in 2026.

An income just under the limit earns only a few dollars. The full credit is paid only on a plateau: for 2025, a single parent with two children gets the full $7,152 from $17,880 to $23,350 of income. Below the plateau the credit builds up; above it the credit shrinks. The next sections show exactly where each figure comes from.

The investment income limit is a cliff, not a taper. According to section 32(i) of the Internal Revenue Code, no credit is allowed at all if your investment income exceeds the limit, so $11,951 of interest, dividends, capital gains, net rental income or passive income in 2025 removes the whole credit.

EITC amounts and income limits for 2026 (filed in 2027)

The 2026 EITC figures come from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the IRS notice of 2026 inflation adjustments. Each maximum credit is about 2.3% higher than for 2025, and the investment income limit rises by $250 to $12,200.

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 4 July 2025 did not rewrite the EITC. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 lists every section of the tax code that the Act changed and that the notice reflects, and section 32, which holds the EITC, is not one of them: the 2026 figures are ordinary inflation adjustments. The Act did raise the child tax credit, covered further down.

How the EITC is calculated: phase-in, plateau and phase-out

The EITC is calculated in three stages set by section 32 of the Internal Revenue Code: it grows with each dollar you earn, stays flat at the maximum, then falls as income rises past a threshold. Four numbers decide your credit: the credit percentage, the earned income amount, the phase-out threshold and the phase-out percentage.

1. Phase-in. Your credit is your earned income multiplied by the credit percentage, up to the maximum credit.
2. Plateau. Once earned income reaches the earned income amount, you get the maximum credit.
3. Phase-out. If your AGI, or your earned income if that is higher, is above the threshold, the maximum credit is reduced by the phase-out percentage of the excess. At the income limit the credit reaches zero.

Married couples filing jointly get the same maximum credit as single filers, but the phase-out starts $7,120 later for 2025 ($7,270 for 2026), so a couple keeps more of the credit at the same income. The percentages are fixed in law and do not change with inflation; only the dollar amounts do.

The IRS does not ask you to do this arithmetic. The EIC Table in the Form 1040 instructions and Publication 596 lists the credit in $50 income bands, and each band shows the credit for the midpoint of that band, rounded to the nearest dollar. That is why the IRS table example in Publication 596 gives $842 for a single parent with one child and $2,455 of income: the band is $2,450 to $2,500, its midpoint is $2,475, and 34% of $2,475 is $841.50, rounded to $842.

Worked example: a single parent with two children earning $35,000

A single parent filing as head of household with two qualifying children, $35,000 of wages, no other income and $35,000 of AGI gets an EITC of $4,693 for 2025. The site has no EITC calculator, so these figures are worked by hand from the IRS parameters above and rounded the way the IRS table rounds them. Each result below was checked against the 2025 EIC Table in Publication 596.

Step 1: find the $50 band. $35,000 falls in the band from $35,000 to $35,050. The IRS table uses the midpoint, $35,025.

Step 2: phase-in. 40% of earned income, capped at the maximum. 40% × $35,025 = $14,010, which is above the cap, so the phase-in gives the full $7,152 (40% × $17,880).

Step 3: phase-out. Income over the $23,350 threshold: $35,025 − $23,350 = $11,675. Reduction: 21.06% × $11,675 = $2,458.76.

Step 4: credit. $7,152 − $2,458.76 = $4,693.24, rounded to $4,693. The IRS 2025 table shows $4,693 for this band.

The same head of household in 2026, on the same $35,000, would get about $4,971: $7,316 − 21.06% × ($35,025 − $23,890) = $4,970.97. The IRS will publish the official 2026 table with the 2026 Form 1040 instructions, so treat the 2026 figure as an estimate until then.

The married couple gets $1,500 more than the single parent on the same income only because their phase-out starts at $30,470 rather than $23,350. If each spouse earned $35,000, their combined $70,000 would be above the $64,430 limit and they would get nothing.

Who counts as a qualifying child for the EITC

A qualifying child for the EITC must pass four tests (age, relationship, residency and joint return), have a valid Social Security number, and be claimed by only one person. According to the IRS qualifying child rules page, the tests are:

• Age: under 19 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly); or under 24 and a full-time student for at least 5 months of the year; or any age if permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year.
• Relationship: your son, daughter, stepchild, adopted child or eligible foster child; your brother, sister, half-sibling or step-sibling; or a descendant of any of them, such as a grandchild, niece or nephew.
• Residency: the child lived with you in the United States for more than half the year. The 50 states, DC and US military bases count; Puerto Rico, Guam and other territories do not. Temporary absences for school, hospital stays or military service count as time at home, and a homeless shelter counts as a home.
• Joint return: the child cannot file a joint return with a spouse, unless it is only to claim back withheld tax.

The EITC age test differs from the child tax credit, which needs a child under 17. A 17 or 18 year old at home still counts for the EITC but not for the child tax credit, and so does a 22 year old full-time college student.

Only one person can claim a child. If a child qualifies for two people, such as a parent and a grandparent in the same home, the IRS tiebreaker rules give the child to the parent; between two parents who file separately, to the parent the child lived with longer; and if the time was equal, to the parent with the higher AGI. The person who loses the tiebreaker may still claim the smaller EITC for workers without children.

EITC without children: you must be 25 to 64

Workers without a qualifying child can claim the EITC if they are at least 25 but under 65 at the end of the tax year. According to the IRS, if you are married and filing jointly, only one spouse needs to meet the age rule. You must also have lived in the United States for more than half the year and not be claimable as anyone's dependent or qualifying child.

The credit is small. For 2025 it is at most $649, reached from $8,490 to $10,620 of income, and it runs out at $19,104 for a single filer or $26,214 for a couple. For 2026 the maximum is $664 and the limits are $19,540 and $26,820.

The age limits catch two groups every year:

• Workers under 25, such as a 23 year old earning $14,000, get no EITC unless they have a qualifying child. A 17 year old with a part-time job usually cannot claim it either, because they are under 25 and usually their parent's qualifying child.
• Workers 65 and over without children lose the credit in the year they turn 65. There is no upper age limit when you claim with a qualifying child, so a 67 year old grandparent raising a grandchild can still get it.

What counts as earned income, and what does not

Earned income for the EITC is taxable pay from work: wages, salaries and tips shown in box 1 of your W-2, net earnings from self-employment, taxable benefits from an employer's disability retirement plan received before minimum retirement age, and strike and lockout benefits. According to the IRS, it does not include interest and dividends, pensions or annuities, Social Security benefits, unemployment benefits, alimony, child support, or pay for work done while in prison.

Self-employed workers use net earnings from self-employment, which is profit after business expenses, worked out on EIC Worksheet B in the Form 1040 instructions. A freelancer with $30,000 of receipts and $8,000 of expenses starts from the $22,000 profit, not the $30,000. Publication 596 warns that if your net earnings are $400 or more you must complete Schedule SE and pay self-employment tax, or you may not get all the credit. A loss reduces earned income.

Members of the armed forces can choose to include nontaxable combat pay (box 12, code Q on the W-2) in earned income. According to Publication 596, if you make the election you must include all of it, and on a joint return each spouse can make their own choice. It can raise or lower the credit, so work it out both ways.

Other rules everyone must meet, according to the IRS: you must be a US citizen or resident alien all year (or file jointly with one and choose to be treated as a resident), you cannot file Form 2555 to exclude foreign earned income, and if you are married filing separately you can claim only with a qualifying child who lived with you more than half the year, and only if you lived apart from your spouse for the last 6 months of the year or are legally separated.

Why your EITC is lower this year

An EITC that is lower than last year is usually caused by one of five changes. Check each before assuming the IRS made a mistake:

1. Your income rose into the phase-out. With two or more children, each extra $1,000 of income above $23,350 (2025, not joint) cuts the credit by $210.60. A $3,000 pay rise can cost $632 of EITC.
2. A child aged out. A child who turned 19, or 24 as a student, or who stopped studying full time, no longer counts. Going from two children to one cuts the 2025 maximum from $7,152 to $4,328.
3. You got married. Adding a spouse's wages can move you far up the phase-out even though the joint threshold is higher.
4. Investment income crossed the limit. Over $11,950 of investment income in 2025 wipes out the whole credit.
5. Your income fell below the plateau. Fewer hours can put you back on the phase-in, where the credit is only 34% to 45% of pay.

If you think a change in your pay caused it, compare this year's and last year's gross pay with the US paycheck calculator, and check how much federal tax your employer took in how federal withholding is worked out.

How to claim the EITC on your tax return

You claim the EITC by filing Form 1040 or 1040-SR, even if your income is too low to have to file. The credit is not paid automatically. According to the IRS, you must also attach Schedule EIC if you claim it with a qualifying child; workers without a child do not need Schedule EIC.

On the 2025 Form 1040, the credit goes on line 27a. Tax software fills in the EIC worksheet and Schedule EIC from your answers, and the IRS Free File and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programmes can prepare the return for free if your income is within their limits.

You can still claim for past years. According to the IRS, you have 3 years from the return's due date: a 2023 return filed by 15 April 2027 and a 2024 return filed by 17 April 2028 can still claim the credit. If you filed but missed the credit, file Form 1040-X to amend the return.

Keep the records that prove a child lived with you, such as school, medical or lease documents with the child's address. The IRS audits EITC claims more than most, and if it disallows a claim for reckless or intentional disregard of the rules it can bar you from the credit for 2 years; for fraud, 10 years.

When EITC refunds arrive: the PATH Act delay to mid-February

The IRS cannot send any refund that includes the EITC before mid-February. Section 6402(m) of the Internal Revenue Code, added by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015, bars a refund before the 15th day of the second month after the tax year ends, that is 15 February, if the return claims the EITC or the additional child tax credit.

The hold covers the whole refund, not just the EITC part. According to the IRS, early filers who file online, choose direct deposit and have no problems on the return can expect the refund by 2 March, and Where's My Refund should show an updated status by 21 February for most early EITC filers. Banks may add a day or two, and many do not process deposits at weekends.

Filing in January does not beat the delay, but it does put you near the front of the queue on 15 February. A return with an error, or one the IRS picks for review, will take longer; the IRS writes to you if it needs documents.

The EITC and the child tax credit are separate, and you can get both

The EITC and the child tax credit are two different credits, and a working parent can claim both on the same return. The child tax credit is worth up to $2,200 per child under 17 for 2025 and 2026, of which up to $1,700 per child can be refunded, according to Rev. Proc. 2025-32.

The EITC is also not a deduction. The standard deduction reduces taxable income; the EITC is subtracted from the tax itself and any excess is paid to you, so taking the standard deduction does not stop you claiming the EITC.

State earned income tax credits add to the federal credit

Many states pay their own EITC, usually as a percentage of the federal credit. The IRS list of state and local EITCs, last updated 26 November 2025, names 28 states plus the District of Columbia and New York City. Most are refundable, but some, such as Ohio's and South Carolina's, only reduce state tax.

State rules and percentages change more often than the federal ones, so check the current figure with your state's revenue department before relying on it. The IRS page links to each state's own site.

What to do next

Gather your W-2s, any 1099-NEC or self-employment records, your investment income figures and each child's Social Security number, then:

1. Find your row in the 2025 table above and check that both your earned income and your AGI are under the limit, and that investment income is no more than $11,950.
2. Estimate your credit with the phase-out formula in the worked example, or run the IRS EITC Assistant for a yes or no on eligibility.
3. If you filed for 2023 or 2024 without claiming it and you qualified, file Form 1040-X; the 2023 deadline is 15 April 2027.
4. For 2026, check your pay with the US paycheck calculator so you know where your income sits against the $23,890 phase-out threshold before you agree to extra hours or a raise.