2025 Earned Income Credit Eligibility Information # of Children Earned Income (and adjusted gross income) must be less than: Maximum Credit will be: 0 $19,104 ($26,214 if married and filing a joint return) $649 1 $50,434 ($57,554 if married and filing a joint return) $4,328 2 $57,310 ($64,430 if married and filing a joint return) $7,152 3 $61,555 ($68,675 if married and filing a joint return) $8,046 Investment Income Limit: $11,950 or less Does my child qualify? To qualify, the child has to be: - Your son, daughter, stepchild, adopted child or a descendant. - Your foster child, placed with you by an authorized agency or court order. - Your brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister or a descendant of one of these. - Age 18 or younger as of the end of the year (unless the child is a full-time student, in which case the student has to be 23 or younger). Exception: A person who is permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year qualifies, no matter how old. - A resident with you in the United States for more than half of the year. Example: You and your sister live together. You are 30 and your sister is 15. When your parents died two years ago, you took over the care of your sister, but you did not adopt her. She is considered a qualifying child because she lived with you more than half of the year. Who is an eligible foster child? For the Earned Income Credit, a foster child is defined as an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or court order. The child is required to have lived with you for more than half of the year. What about my welfare benefits? The Earned Income Credit has no effect on certain welfare benefits. Any refund you receive because of the EIC generally will not be considered income when determining whether you are eligible for, or how much you can receive from, the following benefit programs: - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) - Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - Food stamps - Low-income housing Earned income does not include: - Pay you got for work when you were an inmate in a penal institution - Interest and dividends - Pensions or annuities - Social Security - Unemployment benefits - Alimony - Child support

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