Frequently Asked Tax Questions
Earned Income Tax Credit - Qualifying Child Rules
Rev. date: 12/21/2012
Earned Income Credit.
A child who was born or died in 2012 is treated as having lived with you for all
of 2012 if your home was the child’s home the entire time he or she was
alive in 2012.
- The earned income credit generally requires that you provide a valid social security number for your qualifying
child.
- If you meet all of the other requirements to claim this credit and your child was born and died in the same year, you will not be required to provide a social security number for that
child.
- Instead, you may enter "DIED" on line 2 of
Schedule EIC (Form 1040A or 1040),
Earned Income Credit, and attach a copy of the child's birth certificate, death certificate or a hospital medical record showing a live
birth.
Dependency Exemption and Child Tax Credit. A person is considered to have lived with you for all of 2012 if the person was born or died in 2012, and your home was this person’s home for the entire time he or she was alive in
2012.
- The child must be born alive. Whether your child was born alive depends on state or local
law.
- Under these circumstances, if you do not have a social security number for the child, you may attach a copy of the child's birth certificate or a hospital record showing a live birth and enter "DIED" in column 2 of line 6c of the
Form 1040 (PDF) or
Form 1040A (PDF).
Rev. date: 12/21/2012
You do not have to be entitled to claim the child as a dependent to claim the earned income credit based on the child being your qualifying child. However, the child cannot file a joint return for the year except as a claim for refund. If your qualifying child was married at the end of the year but does not file a joint tax return, he or she cannot be your qualifying child unless the following conditions are
met:
- You can claim an exemption for the child, or
- The reason you cannot claim an exemption for the child is because you released a claim to a dependency exemption for the child under the special rule for divorced or separated parents or parents who live
apart.
For more information, refer to Qualifying Child, in
Publication 596,
Earned Income Credit.
Rev. date: 12/21/2012
No. The noncustodial parent cannot claim the earned income credit on the basis of that child because the child did not live with that parent for the greater part of the year and therefore does not meet the residency
test.
- The custodial parent may be able to claim the earned income credit if all the other requirements are
met.
Note:
For income tax purposes, the custodial parent is the person with whom the
qualifying child in question lives with the greater number of nights during the
year.
Rev. date: 12/21/2012
No. In order to qualify for the earned income credit, your filing status cannot be married filing
separately.
- If you are married, you usually must file a joint return to claim the earned income
credit.
- However, if you are married and your spouse did not live in your home at any time during the last 6 months of the year, you may be able to file as head of
household.
- In that case, you may be able to claim the earned income credit.
To qualify for the earned income credit for 2012, when you have two qualifying children, your adjusted gross income must be less than $41,952 if filing as single, surviving spouse, or head of household ($47,162 if married filing
jointly).
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