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Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service Publication 596 Cat. No. 15173A Earned Income Credit (EIC) For use in preparing 2021 Returns Get forms and other information faster and easier at: • IRS.gov (English) • IRS.gov/Spanish (Español) • IRS.gov/Chinese (中文) • IRS.gov/Korean (한국어) • IRS.gov/Russian (Pусский) • IRS.gov/Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) Contents What's New for 2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 1. Rules for Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Rule 1—Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Limits . . . . 4 Rule 2—You Must Have a Valid Social Security Number (SSN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Rule 3—If You Are Separated From Your Spouse and Not Filing a Joint Return, You Must Meet Certain Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Rule 4—You Must Be a U.S. Citizen or Resident Alien All Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Rule 5—You Cannot File Form 2555 . . . . . . . . . . 6 Rule 6—Your Investment Income Must Be $10,000 or Less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Rule 7—You Must Have Earned Income . . . . . . . . 8 Chapter 2. Rules if You Have a Qualifying Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Rule 8—Your Child Must Meet the Relationship, Age, Residency, and Joint Return Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Rule 9—Your Qualifying Child Cannot Be Used by More Than One Person To Claim the EIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Rule 10—You Cannot Be a Qualifying Child of Another Taxpayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Chapter 3. Rules If You Do Not Have a Qualifying Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Rule 11—You Must Meet the Age Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Rule 12—You Cannot Be the Dependent of Another Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Rule 13—You Cannot Be a Qualifying Child of Another Taxpayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Rule 14—You Must Have Lived in the United States More Than Half of the Year . . . . . . . . . 19 Chapter 4. Figuring and Claiming the EIC . . . . . 19 Rule 15—Earned Income Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 IRS Will Figure the EIC for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 How To Figure the EIC Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Chapter 5. Disallowance of the EIC . . . . . . . . . . 22 Chapter 6. Detailed Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 How To Get Tax Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 EIC Eligibility Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Future Developments For the latest information about developments related to Pub. 596, such as legislation enacted after it was published, go to IRS.gov/Pub596. Jan 10, 2022