EIC disabled adult child

[jtalley22]

I am filing as Head of Household. I have a 21-year-old son who is permanently and totally disabled.

​According to IRS Publication 596, a disabled child of any age is a 'Qualifying Child' for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). 

​My issue is that TurboTax is only giving me $1,983 in EITC, which is the amount for a person with no children. Based on my income, having one 'Qualifying Child' should increase my EITC to over $4,000. The software is not 'bridging' his disability status to the EITC calculation. I have the disability box checked, the support box set to 'No,' and the residency set to 'Whole Year,' but the software is not generating Schedule EIC. I need to know what specific back-end question is blocking him from being a Qualifying Child.

[xmasbaby0]

This is a hunch.   Go to MY INFO and click your son's name.   Go through the interview questions to the one that asks if he paid for over half his own support.   Make sure you said NO.   It is not asking if you paid over half---it is asking if HE paid over half.  It is a weird question that confuses people.

[xmasbaby0]

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/use-the-eitc-assistant

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf

[jtalley22]

I may have worded my post incorrectly, it asks if I paid for more than half of his expenses and I have that box marked yes. I don't know what I'm doing wrong or if I'm just misinformed.

[xmasbaby0]

That question is not asking if you paid over half.   It is asking if the child paid over half.  Say NO.

[jtalley22]

It asks "Did you pay for more than half of Ryan's living expenses in 2025?" And I checked yes. I've double checked and tripled checked and checked again. I really don't know what I'm missing, unless I'm misinformed on how the credit works for disabled adult children. 

[DoninGA]

@jtalley22 In the My Info section of the program, when entering him as a dependent, there is a screen Less common situations did you check the Disabled box?  Go back to My Info and check.

[jtalley22]

I did check the disabled box.

[DoninGA]

@jtalley22 If you child is age 19 or older, you have indicated that he is disabled, you have indicated that you provided over one-half of his support, that there is no else in the home providing support, that the box labeled Not valid for employment is NOT checked in the section for the Social Security number and your income is within the range to be eligible for EIC then the EIC section should be indicating that the child is eligible for being a dependent under EIC.

If this is not the case then delete him as a dependent in the My Info section and re-enter.

[Hal_Al]

Your understanding is correct, a disabled adult child does qualify you for the EITC.  It sounds like you may have answered the residence question wrong.  The child must have lived with you more than half the year.

You should be getting the "did the child provide more than half his own support" question, not the "did you provide more than half his support" question. 

The "did the child provide more than half his own support" question is for a Qualifying Child dependent. The "did you provide more than half his support" is for a Qualifying Relative" dependent (does not get you EITC).

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit (if under 17). They are interrelated but the rules are different for each.

The support test is different for each type. The support test, for a QC, is only that the child didn't provide more than half his own support. The support test for a Qualifying Relative is that the taxpayer provided more than half the relative's support.

A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. 
3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

[jtalley22]

I have deleted him and re-added him twice now to make sure I didn't miss anything or answer incorrectly. I really don't understand why its not reflecting correctly.

[Hal_Al]

@jtalley22  said "TurboTax is only giving me $1,983 in EITC, which is the amount for a person with no children"

That's not correct.  Th maximum a person with no children can get is $649.  

The fact that TT is giving you $1983 may indicate your issue is not with your child qualifying but with adjustments to your income  or how you entered it. 

What makes you think you should be getting $4000?

The earned income credit is first calculated (actually looked up in a table) on your earned income then it is calculated on your total income (AGI). You get the lesser of the two calculated EIC numbers. See the 2025 EIC table at page 49 at:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf

Also see Schedule EIC and the EIC worksheet in TurboTax. 

[jtalley22]

I checked the box that he is my biological child, he has lived with me the entire year, nobody else can claim him, his income is less than $5200, I paid for more than half of his expenses, he is disabled and "social security card has "Not valid for employment" printed on it is NOT selected. I've tripled checked at this point.

[xmasbaby0]

@jtalley22 You seem to misunderstand the amount of EIC you can get for claiming your son as a dependent.   Have you tried using the interactive IRS tool to see how much earned income credit you should get?   You cannot get almost $2000 in EIC if you a single filer without a dependent.  The software is using your son to calculate your EIC.    You are over-estimating how much you can get, or mis-reading the EIC chart.  And....You do not get child tax credit for him so not sure why you think you should be getting almost $4000.

[jtalley22]

You're right, which almost confuses me more. For Head of Household with my income and one qualifying child, the credit is over $4000. I should technically be getting zero in the EITC if the software thinks I have no children.