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Federal EITC from the 2026 tables

Earned Income Credit Calculator

Estimate the 2026 federal earned income tax credit from earned income, AGI, qualifying children and the investment-income limit in Revenue Procedure 2025-32.

Your numbers

Earned income credit

The federal EITC from the 2026 Revenue Procedure amounts, including the investment-income disallowance.
TAX YEAR 2026

Revenue Procedure 2025-32 §4.06us-tax-2026-v1

$Wages plus net self-employment earnings
$
The credit stops rising after three
Investment income
$The credit is $0 above $12,200

Guide

The earned income credit is a curve, then a cliff

CostAnswer editorialIndependent calculator publisher

The federal EITC is not a flat amount per child. It rises with earned income, sits at a published maximum, then phases out against the larger of AGI and earned income — unless investment income is high enough to disallow it entirely.

Three numbers decide the credit

Revenue Procedure 2025-32 publishes an earned-income amount, a maximum credit, and phase-out thresholds that differ for joint filers. This page uses those amounts rather than the IRS $50 lookup tables, so a table cell can differ by a few dollars.

A joint return starts phasing out later. Married filing separately is treated like every other non-joint status; the narrow separated-spouse rule is not tested.

Investment income is a cliff

If certain investment income is over the year’s limit, the credit is zero. That is not a phase-out. Interest, dividends, capital gain distributions and rental income in the statutory mix all count.

Eligibility is more than the math

A credit with no qualifying children also requires the filer to be at least 25 and under 65. Qualifying children have relationship, age, residency and joint-return tests. This page takes the child count as given and does not apply those tests.

Questions about this calculator

How many qualifying children does the EITC count?

Zero, one, two, or three or more. The credit does not keep rising after three.

A qualifying child for EITC is not always a qualifying child for the child tax credit. The two tests differ on age.

Why is a joint return’s EITC larger at the same income?

The maximum credit is the same. The phase-out starts later on a joint return, so income that is already phasing out if you file single can still sit at the maximum if you file jointly.

Does the EITC reduce the tax I owe, or can it be refunded?

It is refundable. If it is larger than the tax, the extra can come back as a refund.

Terms used here

Earned income amount
The earned income at which the EITC reaches its maximum for a given child count.
Completed phase-out
The AGI or earned income at or above which the EITC is zero.
Investment-income limit
A cliff above which no earned income credit is allowed for the year.
Schedule EIC
The schedule used to claim the earned income credit with qualifying children on Form 1040.

Practical tips

  • Enter both earned income and AGI. The phase-out uses the larger of the two.
  • If you have capital gains or rental income, check the investment-income box before trusting a non-zero credit.
  • State earned-income credits are separate and are not on this page.

Limits and caveats

  • Age, residency and separated-spouse tests are not applied.
  • IRS tables round in $50 bands; this page uses the Revenue Procedure amounts.
  • This is not a filed return and not tax advice.

Results are for information. They are not legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. How the math is maintained · Report a wrong figure.

Engine notes

Rounding, versioning, and omissions that sit beside the guide rather than repeating it.

  • The credit rises, plateaus, then falls. Earned income builds the credit up to a published maximum. The same maximum then phases out against the larger of AGI and earned income. A joint return gets a higher phase-out threshold than every other status.
  • Investment income can wipe it out. For 2026, the credit is not allowed if certain investment income is over $12,200. That is a cliff, not a phase-out.
  • What this page does not check. A credit with no qualifying children also requires the filer to be at least 25 and under 65. Qualifying children have relationship, age, residency and joint-return tests. Married filing separately has a narrow separated-spouse exception. None of those tests are applied here.

Calculation receipt

What each number here is

This answer is built from published figures. Each one is named below, with the release it came from.

VERIFIEDIRS and state revenue departments
Sets the figures this answer is made of. Without it the page says so rather than estimating.

If a source above is unavailable or out of date: EITC is a published table of thresholds and phase-out rates. Nothing about it can be derived.

Sources

Where this data comes from

Internal Revenue ServiceRevenue Procedure 2025-32 §4.06, earned income credit amounts for tax year 2026. Snapshot us-tax-2026-v1.IRS · Tax year 2026 ↗

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