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| who files as married filing separately cannot get the credit. Generally, to qualify for the EIC, the individual must be either a U.S. citizen or resident alien, cannot be a qualifying child of another person and cannot have filed Form 2555 or Form 2555-EZ which is the form used to claim the foreign earned income exclusion, a tax benefit for Americans who live and work abroad. |
| In addition,
income must be below certain amounts. For tax year 2013, both earned income
and adjusted gross income (AGI) must each be less than * $14,340 ($19,680 married filing jointly) with no qualifying children; * $37,870 ($43,210 married filing jointly) with one qualifying child; * $43,038 ($48,378 married filing jointly) with two qualifying children; * $46,227 ($51,567 married filing jointly) with three or more qualifying children. |
| You may qualify for the earned income tax credit (EITC), if you worked last year but did not earn a lot of money. EITC is a refundable tax credit meaning you could qualify for a tax refund even if you did not have federal income tax withheld. To qualify for the credit your adjusted gross income (AGI) must be below a certain amount and you must not be a qualifying child of another person, have a qualifying child who meets four tests (the age, relationship, residency and joint return tests) and you are age 25 but under age 65 at the end of the year if you don't have a qualifying child. If you qualify, the amount of your EITC will depend on your filing status, whether you have children and the number of children you have, and the amount of your wages and income. |
| Child Tax Credit |
| The Child Tax Credit is an important tax credit that may be worth as much as $1,000 per qualifying child depending upon your income. With the Child Tax Credit, you may be able to reduce your federal income tax by up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under the age of 17. A qualifying child for this credit is someone who meets the qualifying criteria of six tests: age, relationship, support, dependent, citizenship, and residence. To qualify, a child must have been under age 17 – age 16 or younger – at the end of 2010. To claim a child for purposes of the Child Tax Credit, they must either be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister or a descendant of any of these individuals, which includes your grandchild, niece or nephew. An adopted child is always treated as your own child. An adopted child includes a child lawfully placed with you for legal adoption. In order to claim a child for this credit, the child must not have provided more than half of their own support. You must claim the child as a dependent on your federal tax return. To meet the citizenship test, the child must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien. The child must have lived with you for more than half of 2014. |
| The credit is limited if your modified adjusted gross income is above a certain amount. The amount at which this phase-out begins varies depending on your filing status. For married taxpayers filing a joint return, the phase-out begins at $110,000. For married taxpayers filing a separate return, it begins at $55,000. For all other taxpayers, the phase-out begins at $75,000. In addition, the Child Tax Credit is |
| Copyright © 2014 [Hera's Income Tax School]. All Annual Federal Tax Refresher Course rights reserved. |
| Revised: 05/28/15 |
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