How to Claim Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit for taxpayers with low to moderate income. You must meet EITC rules set-up by IRS and file a federal income tax return to claim EITC.

Step 1: Determine if you are eligible to claim earned income tax credit.

The table below lists all EITC eligibility requirements by the number of qualifying children you are going to claim. You must meet all the requirements that apply to you.

Step 2: Collect information needed to claim EITC.

In addition to collect documents for preparing your federal income tax return, you also need to have certain documents ready in case you need to prove that you can claim EITC for your qualifying child(ren). You can find lists of these documents on Form 886-H-EIC, Documents You Need to Send to Claim the Earned Income Credit  on the Basis of a Qualifying Child or Children for Tax Year 2015.

Step 3: Prepare and file tax forms with IRS  to claim EITC.

You must file a federal income tax return Form 1040, or 1040EZ, or 1040A with Schedule EIC (if you want to claim qualifying child(ren)) in order to claim EITC.

If you want to prepare and file tax returns by yourself, you can use free tax preparation software offered on IRS website. You will be guided by the software to input information for your return. After you input all the information, you tax return will be generated and your EITC will be calculated by the software. You can file your return after you complete the whole preparation process guided by the software.

You can also use the free tax return preparation service provided by the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Generally, you can find the services located at you community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools or shopping centers. You can also find the VITA site near you by using the VITA locator Tool on the IRS website. or call 800-906-9887.

If you don't want to prepare your own tax return and can't get any free help, you can hire a paid tax professional to prepare and file your tax return to claim the credit for you.

For more information, please see IRS Publication 596.



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