Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Assistant

U.S. Citizen or Resident Alien

If you are not a U.S. citizen, you're considered an alien.

You're considered a resident alien for the EITC if you have a green card, or you lived in the U.S. for more than a certain number of days.

For more information and important exceptions, see Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.

Valid Social Security Number

You must have a valid Social Security number (SSN) that is issued by the Social Security Administration on or before the due date of your tax return (including extensions).

For the EITC, an SSN is a valid SSN unless “Not Valid for Employment” is printed on the social security card and the number was issued solely to allow the recipient of the SSN to apply for or receive a federally funded benefit. An example of a federally funded benefit is Medicaid.

We accept a social security card with "Valid for work with DHS authorization" on it only as long as the DHS authorization is still valid.

For the EITC, we don't accept:

• IRS Individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN)
• Adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN)
• Social Security number issued solely to allow the recipient of the SSN to apply for or receive a federally funded benefit such as Medicaid

Excluded Foreign earned income

This refers to income you earned outside the United States, District of Columbia, or U.S. possessions or territories which you have elected to exclude on a Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income.

You as a Dependent or Qualifying Child

In most cases you cannot be a dependent or qualifying child of another taxpayer and claim the EITC.

• In most cases, if you're under age 19 or a student under age 24 and live with your parents or other relatives in the United States for more than half of the year, select Yes.
• If you're married and filing a joint return, you can't be claimed as a dependent unless you're only filing a joint return to claim a refund of withheld income taxes or estimated taxes paid.

For more information about whether someone can claim you as a dependent, visit Whom May I Claim as a Dependent?

For more information about whether someone can claim you as a qualifying child for the EITC, see Publication 596, Earned Income Credit, You Cannot Be a Qualifying Child of Another Taxpayer.

We'll ask about children or relatives you might claim later.