Qualifying child rules

You may claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for a child if your child meets the rules below.

To qualify for the EITC, a qualifying child must:

Tests for a qualifying child

A child is a qualifying child for EITC if they meet all 4 of these tests:

To be a qualifying child for the EITC, your child must be:

or

  • Under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse, if you file a joint return)

or

  • Under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student for at least 5 months of the year and younger than you (or your spouse, if you file a joint return)

Full-time student definition

To be considered full-time, the student must have enrolled for the number of hours or courses their school considers to be full-time attendance. Students who work on "co-op" jobs in private industry as a part of a school's official program are also considered full-time students.

School definition

For the EITC, a school is:

  • Elementary school
  • Junior or senior high school
  • College or university
  • Technical, trade or mechanical school

A school is not:

  • On-the-job training course
  • Correspondence school
  • School offering courses only through the Internet 

For more information on students and schools, see Publication 596, Earned Income Credit, Student Defined and School Defined.

To be a qualifying child for the EITC, your child must be your:

  • Son, daughter, stepchild, adopted child or foster child
  • Brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, stepsister or stepbrother
  • Grandchild, niece or nephew

Adopted child definition

An adopted child is a child who is lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Foster child definition

For the EITC, you can only claim a foster child that is placed with you by:

  • A State or local government agency
  • An Indian tribal government
  • A tax-exempt organization licensed by a state or an Indian tribal government
  • A court order

To be a qualifying child for the EITC, your child must live in the same home as you in the United States for more than half of the tax year. The United States includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. military bases. It does not include United States possessions such as Guam, the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico.

Birth or death of a child

If the child was born or died during year for which you claim the EITC and they lived with you for more than half of their life during that year we consider that more than half of the year for the EITC.

Temporary time away from home

If your child was temporarily away from home, we count that as time lived with you. For example, your relative may temporarily leave the home because of:

  • Illness or hospitalization
  • School attendance, vacation, business or military service
  • Detention in a juvenile facility
  • Kidnapping

For more residency information, see:

If your child can file a joint return with another person (for example, their husband or wife), you may not be able to claim them.

To be a qualifying child for the EITC, your child must not have filed a joint return with another person (for example, their husband or wife) to claim any credits such as the EITC. Your child can file a joint tax return only to get a tax refund on tax withheld from their paycheck.

For more information see:

Only one person may claim a qualifying child

A child may meet all the requirements and qualify more than one person for the following child-related benefits: 

  • Dependency exemption
  • EITC
  • Child tax credit/credit for other dependents/additional child tax credit
  • Head of household filing status or,
  • Dependent care credit/exclusion for dependent care benefits

However, even if two or more persons have the same qualifying child, only one person can claim the child as a qualifying child for all these benefits. Special rules apply for parents who are divorced, separated, or who are living apart.

When two or more persons can claim the same qualifying child, the following tiebreaker rules apply. Subject to these rules, you may be able to decide who will claim the child-related benefits.

  • If only one of the persons is the child’s parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
  • If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents.
  • If the parents don’t file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period in 2023. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for 2023.
  • If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for 2023.
  • If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for 2023, but only if that person’s AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any parent of the child who can claim the child.

See Publication 596, Earned Income Credit (EIC), for more information on the tiebreaker rules.

If you can’t claim the qualifying child because of the tiebreaker rules, you may be eligible to claim the EITC with no qualifying child.

Proof of qualification

If you are audited after claiming the Earned Income Credit, you will need to provide documents proving that your child qualifies. Use the Form 886-H-EIC Toolkit to find the documents you need to send us to prove you can claim the EITC with a qualifying child.

Other credits you may qualify for

If you qualify for the EITC, you may also qualify for other tax credits.

Resources

Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 13-Feb-2025