As the 2025 tax season approaches, Americans must prepare for their federal income tax and claim the credits they qualify for to reduce their bill or increase the refund value. One such credit is the Earned Income tax credit offered to low-to-moderate earners to lower their financial burdens.
Before the tax season begins, it’s essential to be prepared for taxes and complete your tax responsibility timely. So, if you qualify for the EITC and wish to claim, you must be fully prepared with supporting documents or the claiming process to ensure your credit gets approved.
How to claim $632 EITC in 2025?
The EITC helps taxpayers with low or moderate income and qualifying children (if any) to have a tax break and lower their financial burden. Americans who are certain of their EITC qualification and wish to claim the credit ranges from $632 to $7830 can claim it with their federal income tax returns.
Taxpayers who don’t have any income to report can also file tax returns and claim EITC to receive the credits from the IRS. You must file the 1040 tax form or 1040-SR (for senior citizens) when you have no child and wish to claim EITC. In form 1040, you can mark the EITC in the Payments section at the 27 number of the form.
However, with qualifying children, you must file the Schedule EIC with your IRS tax form 1040. You can file the EITC claim either electronically or by paper check, but the fastest or most convenient way will be an electronic method, such as by Direct File (if you live in an eligible area) or Free File (if you qualify). The EITC claim should be made before the tax return deadline unless you have applied for the tax extension.
Information and Forms you will need to claim EITC in 2025
When you file the federal income return with EITC claims you would need the following information or documents to provide the agency for return and refund approval:
- Social Security number of everyone mentioned in your tax return, spouse, children, etc.
- Birth dates for family members mentioned in the return,
- Income forms to show your income, such as Forms W-2 and 1099, Pensions, Social Security payments, etc.
- Your last federal and state tax returns copies, which show you have no balance from the prior year,
- Bank account information if you are choosing the Direct Deposit method
- Mailing address
- Dependent child information, such as SSN, name, childcare (if any), etc.
- Expenses records, such as Mortgage interest, tuition receipt, or any other expense proof.
- If you have health insurance, report it through forms 1095-A, 1095-B, and 1095-C depending on the coverage.
You should prepare this information even when you are going to take tax professional help to file the tax return and remember to check your deductions as well.
What makes you eligible to claim the EITC in 2025?
US people who wish to claim the EITC for their 2024 tax year due in 2025 can check the basic qualifying rules for the credit below:
- You should earn income from sources, such as wages, self-employment, benefits, etc. Your income should meet the income threshold for the 2024 tax year based on number of children and filing status, such as:
| No. of Children | Single, married filing separately, head of households | Married filing jointly |
| No child | $18,591 | $25,511 |
| One | $49,084 | $56,004 |
| Two | $55,768 | $62,688 |
| Three | $59,899 | $66,819 |
- Your investment income should be below the limit, that is, $11,600 or less for the 2024 tax year,
- You should have a valid social security number and for qualifying children as well (if any),
- You should have US citizenship or qualify resident alien category to claim EITC,
- You have no foreign income and you have not filed the foreign earned income in your tax return via Form 2555,
- You file tax returns with any of the following filing statuses:
- Single
- Married filing jointly
- Qualifying surviving spouse
- Married filing separately
- Head of Household
- If you are separated from your spouse, you must meet certain eligibility rules, such as you have lived apart for at least 6 months and you are legally separated from your partner.
- If you have no children, with basic qualifying rules, you should be aged between 25 and 65 and have a main home in any 50 US states or the District of Columbia.
- The military, clergy, and taxpayers with disabilities can also claim EITC when they meet certain rules.
What will be the EITC payout for the 2024 tax year?
People wondering about the EITC payout for the 2024 tax year can check the maximum credit amount based on the number of qualifying children below:
| No. of Qualifying Children | Credit amount |
| No Child | $632 |
| One | $4213 |
| Two | $6960 |
| Three or more | $7830 |
When will you receive the EITC refund in 2025?
The IRS processes the EITC credit with the tax refund, so, if you filed electronically and chose direct deposit you can expect the refund early within 21 days of filing your tax return. However, there is some issue with the EITC refund, the agency will process the tax refund with EITC after 15 Feb 2025.
The restriction on the EITC refund is due to the federal PATH Act, which limits the IRS to process the EITC claims after 15 Feb, even for early filers to mitigate the scams and frauds and ensure eligible people receive the credit. The restricted period gave the IRS enough time to review the claim and assess the authenticity of the claim.
So, the early filers with direct deposit and e-file can expect the payment at the end of February 2025, whereas the paper check claimants can receive the refund in the first or second week of March 2025.
The EITC helps you reduce your tax bill, so if you meet the eligibility, do claim the credit with your tax returns and also check if you qualify for other credits as well, such as CTC, Education credits, and Child & Dependent credit.
