Earned Income Credit

[MikeR19]

My son was 19 years old in 2021, filed single, earned $14,000 in 2021, lived in the U.S. 12 months, was not claimed as a dependent on another tax return and was not a student at the end of 2021.  The desktop TurboTax said he did not qualify for the earned income credit, so we filed his tax return without the credit.  However, we just received a letter from the IRS stating he does qualify for the earned income credit at $1,502.  We reviewed the information in our TurboTax software again and the information is correct and he should qualify. However, no matter what we do TurboTax continues to say he does not qualify for the earned income credit even though the IRS says he does qualify.  Since I am using the desktop version of TurboTax, there are no browser caches or cookies to clear.  This clearly appears to be an error with the TurboTax software.  We read another article by a user with the same problem. Why has this error not been fixed with by TurboTax?

[pk]

@MikeR19 , prima facae it looks like TubroTax is wrong because your son satisfies all the  usual and special requirements.  However, I would like to simulate the scenario on my up-to-date version of Home and Business .  Please can you give me  your son's birthdate. ?  I am assuming that he is a citizen and that he has SSN.

pk

[SweetieJean]

Did he incorrectly state that he could be claimed as a dependent by someone else?

[SweetieJean]

was not a student at the end of 2021.

Was he a student at any time in 2021?

Was his Investment Income $10,000 or less?

and have you updated the 2021 software?

[NCperson]

if the desktop version (forms view), check the following:

1) under "info wks", there is a section for EITC questions.  Review how those were answered (part IV)

2) under "personal wks", review how the questions in Part II were answered

the answers to those questions are controlling the EITC calcuation. 

Also, you state he was not a student at the end of 2021, but was he a student for at least 5 months during 2021? 

was the box asking about whether he CAN be claimed checked as 'yes'? the answer should be 'no' (since he earned more than $4300, presuming he was not a student in 2021 (his student status on 12/31/21 is immaterial)