Qualifying Children for the Earned Income Credit: Earned Income Credit (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Qualifying Children for the Earned Income Credit” within earned income credit. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 596 (2025), Earned Income Credit (EIC), published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

If you have met all the rules in chapter 1, use this chapter to see if you have a qualifying child. This chapter discusses Rules 8 through 10. You must meet all three of those rules, in addition to the rules in chapters 1 and 4, to qualify for the EIC with a qualifying child.

Follow these rules if you have a child who meets the conditions to be your qualifying child for purposes of claiming the EIC, even if the child who qualifies you to claim the EIC doesn’t have a valid SSN issued on or before the due date of your 2025 return (including extensions).

When you file Form 1040 or 1040-SR, you must attach Schedule EIC to your return if you have at least one child who meets the conditions to be your qualifying child for purposes of claiming the EIC, even if that child doesn’t have a valid SSN issued on or before the due date of your return (including extensions). For information about how to complete Schedule EIC if your qualifying child or children don’t have valid SSNs, see Schedule EIC. If you meet all the rules in chapter 1 and this chapter, read chapter 4 to find out what to do next.

Qualifying Children for the Earned Income Credit

Your child is a qualifying child if your child meets four tests. The four tests are:

1. Relationship,

2. Age,

3. Residency, and

4. Joint return.

The four tests are illustrated in Figure A. The paragraphs that follow contain more information about each test.

Relationship Test

To be your qualifying child, a child must be your:

• Son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild); or

• Brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your niece or nephew).

The following definitions clarify the relationship test.

Adopted child.

An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term “adopted child” includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Foster child.

For the EIC, a person is your foster child if the child is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. An authorized placement agency includes:

• A state or local government agency,

• A tax-exempt organization licensed by a state, and

• An Indian tribal government or an organization authorized by an Indian tribal government to place Indian children.

Example.

Dean, who is 12 years old, was placed in your care 2 years ago by an authorized agency responsible for placing children in foster homes. Dean is your foster child.

Figure A. Tests for Qualifying Child

Test for Qualifying Child

Test for Qualifying Child

Summary: This figure is an illustrative representation of the relationship, age, and residency tests described in the text that determine if a dependent is a qualifying child.

Age Test

Your child must be:

1. Under age 19 at the end of 2025 and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly);

2. Under age 24 at the end of 2025, a full-time student, and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly); or

3. Any age and permanently and totally disabled.

.If your child is a full-time student or permanently and totally disabled, be sure to check the appropriate box on line 6 of the Dependents section on page 1 of Form 1040 or 1040-SR..

The following examples and definitions clarify the age test.

Example 1—Child not under age 19.

Your child, Sam, turned 19 on December 10. Unless Sam was permanently and totally disabled or a student, Sam isn’t a qualifying child because, at the end of the year, Sam wasn’t under age 19.

Example 2—Child not younger than you or your spouse.

Your 23-year-old sibling, Blake, who is a full-time student and unmarried, lives with you and your spouse. Blake isn’t disabled. Both you and your spouse are 21 years old, and you file a joint return. Blake isn’t your qualifying child because Blake isn’t younger than you or your spouse.

Example 3—Child younger than your spouse but not younger than you.

The facts are the same as in Example 2 except that your spouse is 25 years old. Because Blake is younger than your spouse, Blake is your qualifying child, even though Blake isn’t younger than you.

Full-time student defined.

To qualify as a full-time student, your child must be, during some part of each of any 5 calendar months during the calendar year:

1. A full-time student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study, and regular student body at the school; or

2. A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1), or a state, county, or local government.

The 5 calendar months need not be consecutive.

A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance.

School defined.

A school can be an elementary school; junior or senior high school; college; university; or technical, trade, or mechanical school. However, on-the-job training courses, correspondence schools, and schools offering courses only through the Internet don’t count as schools for the EIC.

Vocational high school students.

Students who work in co-op jobs in private industry as a part of a school’s regular course of classroom and practical training are considered full-time students.

Permanently and totally disabled.

Your child is permanently and totally disabled if both of the following apply.

1. Your child can’t engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a physical or mental condition.

2. A doctor determines the condition has lasted or can be expected to last continuously for at least a year or can lead to death.

Substantial gainful activity.

Substantial gainful activity means performing significant duties over a reasonable period of time while working for pay or profit, or in work generally done for pay or profit. Full-time work (or part-time work done at an employer’s convenience) in a competitive work situation for at least the minimum wage shows that the child can engage in substantial gainful activity.

Substantial gainful activity isn’t work done to take care of yourself or your home. It isn’t unpaid work on hobbies, institutional therapy or training, school attendance, clubs, social programs, and similar activities. However, doing this kind of work may show that the child is able to engage in substantial gainful activity.

The fact that the child hasn’t worked for some time doesn’t, by itself, prove the child can’t engage in substantial gainful activity.

For examples of substantial gainful activity, see the Instructions for Schedule R (Form 1040).

Residency Test

Your child must have lived with you in the United States for more than half of 2025.

.You can’t claim the EIC for a child who didn’t live with you for more than half of the year, even if you paid most of the child’s living expenses. The IRS may ask you for documents to show you lived with each qualifying child. Documents you might want to keep for this purpose include school and childcare records and other records that show your child’s address..

.If the child lived with you in the United States for more than half of 2025, check both boxes (box (a) and box (b)) on row (5) of the Dependents section on page 1 of Form 1040 or 1040-SR. Also, make sure to check the box to the right of the address block on page 1 of Form 1040 or 1040-SR..

The following paragraphs clarify the residency test.

United States.

This means the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It doesn’t include Puerto Rico or U.S. territories such as Guam.

Homeless shelter.

Your home can be any location where you regularly live. You don’t need a traditional home. For example, if your child lived with you for more than half the year in one or more homeless shelters, your child meets the residency test.

Military personnel stationed outside the United States.

U.S. military personnel stationed outside the United States on extended active duty are considered to live in the United States during that duty period for purposes of the EIC.

Extended active duty.

Extended active duty means you are called or ordered to duty for an indefinite period or for a period of more than 90 days. Once you begin serving your extended active duty, you are still considered to have been on extended active duty even if you don’t serve more than 90 days.

Birth or death of child.

A child who was born or died in 2025 is treated as having lived with you for more than half of 2025 if your home was the child’s home for more than half the time the child was alive in 2025.

Temporary absences.

Count time that you or your child is away from home on a temporary absence due to a special circumstance as time the child lived with you. Examples of a special circumstance include illness, school attendance, business, vacation, military service, and detention in a juvenile facility.

Adopted child.

If you adopted a child in 2025, and that child was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption by you in 2025, or the child was an eligible foster child placed with you during 2025, the child is considered to have lived with you for more than half of 2025 if your main home was this child’s main home for more than half the time this child was adopted or placed with you in 2025.

Kidnapped child.

A kidnapped child is treated as living with you for more than half of the year if the child lived with you for more than half the part of the year before the date of the kidnapping or following the date of the child’s return. The child must be presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who isn’t a member of your family or the child’s family. This treatment applies for all years until the child is returned. However, the last year this treatment can apply is the earlier of:

1. The year there is a determination that the child is dead, or

2. The year the child would have reached age 18.

If your qualifying child has been kidnapped and meets these requirements, enter “KC,” instead of a number, on line 6 of Schedule EIC.

Joint Return Test

To meet this test, the child can’t file a joint return for the year.

Exception.

An exception to the joint return test applies if your child and your child’s spouse file a joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.

Example 1—Child files joint return.

You supported your 18-year-old child who lived with you all year while the child’s spouse was in the Armed Forces. Your child’s spouse earned $25,000 for the year. The couple files a joint return so this child isn’t your qualifying child.

Example 2—Child files joint return to get refund of tax withheld.

Your 18-year-old child and your child’s 17-year-old spouse had $800 of wages from part-time jobs and no other income. They don’t have a child. Neither is required to file a tax return. Taxes were taken out of their pay, so they file a joint return only to get a refund of the withheld taxes. The exception to the joint return test applies, so this child may be your qualifying child if all the other tests are met.

Example 3—Child files joint return to claim American opportunity credit.

The facts are the same as in Example 2 except no taxes were taken out of your child’s pay. Your child and their spouse aren’t required to file a tax return, but they file a joint return to claim an American opportunity credit of $124 and get a refund of that amount. Because claiming the American opportunity credit is their reason for filing the return, they aren’t filing it only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid. The exception to the joint return test doesn’t apply, so this child isn’t your qualifying child.

Married child.

Even if your child doesn’t file a joint return, if your child was married at the end of the year, your child can’t be your qualifying child unless:

1. You can claim the child as a dependent, or

2. The reason you can’t claim the child as a dependent is that you let the child’s other parent claim the child as a dependent under the Special rule for divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart), described later.

.Social security number (SSN). To claim a higher EIC amount based on a qualifying child, that qualifying child must have a valid SSN issued on or before the due date of your 2025 return (including extensions), unless the child was born and died in 2025 and you attach to your return a copy of the child’s birth certificate, death certificate, or hospital records showing a live birth. You can’t claim a higher EIC amount on the basis of a qualifying child if:.

1. The qualifying child’s SSN is missing from your tax return or is incorrect;

2. The qualifying child’s social security card says “Not valid for employment” and was issued for use in getting a federally funded benefit; or

3. Instead of an SSN, the qualifying child has:

   1. An ITIN, which is issued to a noncitizen who can’t get an SSN, or

   2. An adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN), issued to adopting parents who can’t get an SSN for the child being adopted until the adoption is final.

If you have more than one qualifying child and only one has a valid SSN, you can use only that child to claim a higher EIC amount. For more information about SSNs, see Rule 2..

.If “Not Valid for Employment” is printed on your child’s social security card and your child’s immigration status has changed so that your child is now a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, ask the SSA for a social security card without the legend..

.If you have a child who meets the conditions to be a qualifying child for purposes of claiming the EIC, but that child doesn’t have a valid SSN, you may be eligible to claim a self-only EIC..

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

• Publication 596 (2025), Earned Income Credit (EIC): Rules if You Have a Qualifying Child — Rule 8—Your Child Must Meet the Relationship, Age, Residency, and Joint Return Tests — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.