Earned Income Credit Worksheets

If you are a low- to middle-income wage earner or self-employed worker, you may be eligible for the Earned Income Credit (EIC). This is a refundable tax credit, so if your credit amount is higher than your tax bill, you can actually get the unused part of the credit as a payment from the government.

The 2012 income limits to receive an EIC vary, based on the number of children who lived with you and your marital status (see table below for details).

E-filing with CompleteTax makes it easy to determine if you qualify for Earned Income Credit; just answer a few simple questions and we do all of the calculations for you.

Single, Head of Household, Surviving Spouse, and Married Filing Separate
Number of Children	Maximum Credit Amount	Earned Income and Adjusted Gross Income Must Each Be Less Than:	Completed Phaseout Amount
None	$475	$13,980	$13,980
1	$3,169	$36,920	$36,920
2	$5,236	$41,952	$41,952
3 or more	$5,891	$45,060	$45,060

Married Filing Jointly
Number of Children	Maximum Credit Amount	Earned Income and Adjusted Gross Income Must Each Be Less Than:	Completed Phaseout Amount
None	$475	$19,190	$19,190
1	$3,169	$42,130	$42,130
2	$5,236	$47,162	$47,162
3 or more	$5,891	$50,270	$50,270

The EIC is based on a percentage of your income, but it is phased out as your income rises. To find out the actual amount of your EIC, you must complete the EIC worksheets provided below.

earned income credit worksheets

earned income credit worksheets

In order to use the worksheets, you will also need to use the EIC tables:

earned income credit tables

The files are in Adobe portable document format (PDF), which requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is available, without charge, at the Adobe website.

For more information, see our discussion of how the EIC is computed.