One Child

If a child is a qualifying child of two or more taxpayers, the taxpayers may choose which of them will claim the credit on the basis of that child. In general, the taxpayer with the lower earned income will get a higher EIC.

However, if two or more taxpayers actually claim the credit on the basis of the same qualifying child, the IRS applies the following tiebreaker rules that say that the taxpayer who is entitled to the credit is:

• The parent, if one taxpayer is a parent of the child
  
  
• The parent the child lived with longest during the tax year, if both taxpayers are parents of the child
  
  
• The parent with the higher AGI, if both taxpayers are parents of the child and the child lived with both parents for the same length of time during the tax year
  
  
• The taxpayer with the higher AGI, if neither is a parent of the child