Are you referring to Additional Cild Tax Credit? You must have at least $3000 of earned income for that.
As for Earned Income Credit see below (even small amount of earned income will get some EIC but if your earnings were low, so will the EIC be low)
The EIC is calculated on a bell curve. At the bottom of this post there is a table that should help you understand the amount of EIC you are receiving.
The maximum amounts that one can earn and receive the EIC for 2016 are as follows:
Single or Head of Household Married Filing Jointly
with 3 children $47.955 $53.505
with 2 children $44,648 $50,198
with 1 child $39,296 $44,846
with 0 children $14,880 $20,430
Maximum Earned Income Credit (this is calculated on a bell curve based on earnings)
with 3 children $6,269
with 2 children $5572
with 1 child $3373
with 0 children $506
To receive the EIC the income must be EARNED income; unemployment compensation does not count. You cannot have investment income over $3400, and you must be a U.S. citizen or resident alien for the whole tax year. You must have a valid Social Security number. Your filing status cannot be married filing separately. If you are a single filer with no dependents, you must be between the ages of 25 to 65.
There is a table that starts on page 30 of IRS publication 596 regarding EIC and the amount you can receive for your earned income:
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
