@Notaboy -
The special rule is if your 2019 Income is greater than your 2021 income, and it yields a higher EITC credit, you can use 2019 EITC instead of 2021 EITC.
your 2021 income is $21698 and your 2019 income (presumably 2019) is $16441, so since your 2019 income is NOT greater than 2021, you can't use the special rule.
