EIC Tax Table 2019: Amounts, Eligibility, and Claim Rules

The 2019 EIC tax table topped out at $6,557 for workers with three or more qualifying children and bottomed out at $529 for workers with no children, with income ceilings ranging from $15,570 for a single childless filer to $55,952 for a married couple with three children. One thing to know before going further: the deadline to claim a 2019 refund passed on July 17, 2023, and the IRS will not issue 2019 EIC refunds now except in narrow circumstances.¹

2019 Credit Amounts and Income Limits

The maximum credit and the income cutoff both depended on how many qualifying children were on the return and the filing status. Married filing separately did not qualify for the 2019 EIC at all.²

No qualifying children: maximum credit $529; income limit $15,570 single or head of household, $21,370 married filing jointly.
One qualifying child: maximum credit $3,526; income limit $41,094 single or head of household, $46,884 married filing jointly.
Two qualifying children: maximum credit $5,828; income limit $46,703 single or head of household, $52,493 married filing jointly.
Three or more qualifying children: maximum credit $6,557; income limit $50,162 single or head of household, $55,952 married filing jointly.

The IRS compared earned income and adjusted gross income and applied whichever was higher to determine the credit. Investment income had a separate ceiling: more than $3,600 from interest, dividends, or capital gains in 2019 disqualified you from the credit entirely.²

How the 2019 Credit Was Calculated

The EIC is not a flat amount. It phases in as a percentage of each dollar earned, plateaus at the maximum, and then phases out at a set rate as income keeps rising. Publication 596 contained lookup tables that gave the exact credit for every $50 increment of earned income.²

The statutory rates for 2019 were:³

No qualifying children: 7.65% credit rate, 7.65% phase-out rate.
One qualifying child: 34% credit rate, 15.98% phase-out rate.
Two qualifying children: 40% credit rate, 21.06% phase-out rate.
Three or more qualifying children: 45% credit rate, 21.06% phase-out rate.

That gap in the phase-in rates is why the childless credit topped out at $529 while a family with three children could reach $6,557. The childless phase-out also began at a much lower income, narrowing the range where a worker without children received the full amount.

Who Qualified in 2019

Beyond staying under the income limits, a 2019 filer had to meet several other tests. Everyone on the return needed a Social Security number valid for employment. The filer had to be a U.S. citizen or resident alien for the full year. Earned income counted wages, salaries, tips, and net self-employment earnings; it did not include unemployment, Social Security, child support, or pensions. A person who was a qualifying child of another taxpayer could not claim the credit.

Qualifying Child Tests

To count a child toward the higher credit amounts, four tests had to be met:

Relationship: son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, sibling, or a descendant of any of these.
Age: under 19 at the end of 2019, or under 24 if a full-time student for at least five months of the year. A child who was permanently and totally disabled qualified at any age.⁴
Residency: lived with you in the United States for more than half of 2019. For this rule, the United States means the 50 states, D.C., and U.S. military bases, not U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico or Guam.⁴
Joint return: the child did not file a joint return with a spouse for 2019, unless the return was filed only to claim a refund.

Workers Without Qualifying Children

A childless worker had to be at least 25 and under 65 at the end of the tax year, could not be claimed as a dependent on anyone else’s return, and had to live in the United States for more than half the year.

Military Families

A service member on extended active duty outside the United States was treated as living in the United States for the residency requirement, so a deployment did not by itself disqualify the family.⁵ Nontaxable combat zone pay was excluded from earned income by default, but a service member could elect to include it if doing so produced a larger credit. The election was all-or-nothing: including any nontaxable combat pay meant including all of it.

Can You Still Claim the 2019 EIC?

For almost everyone, no. Federal law gives three years from the filing deadline to claim a refund.⁶ The original 2019 due date of April 15, 2020 was pushed to July 15, 2020 because of COVID-19, which put the three-year window at July 17, 2023. That date has passed. A 2019 return filed now with a refund due, including any refundable EIC, will not produce a payment.¹

The one narrow exception is financial disability. If a medically determinable physical or mental impairment expected to last at least 12 months or result in death left you unable to manage your financial affairs during the three-year window, the clock may have been paused. Using the exception requires a physician’s written certification describing the impairment and how it prevented you from handling your finances. If a spouse or someone else was authorized to act on your behalf during that period, the exception does not apply.⁶

The same three-year rule applies to amendments. If you filed a 2019 return but left the EIC off, Form 1040-X with Schedule EIC attached was the correction path,⁷⁸ but the refund could only be paid if the amended return arrived within the same window.⁹

The 2019 numbers still matter in a few situations even without a refund on the table: an IRS audit or notice covering the 2019 year, identity theft on a 2019 return, or a look back at prior credits for financial planning.

Penalties Tied to a 2019 EIC Claim

Claiming the credit incorrectly carries consequences beyond ordinary accuracy penalties. If the IRS determines the credit was claimed with reckless or intentional disregard of the rules, the taxpayer faces a two-year ban from claiming the EIC on any future return. A fraudulent claim extends the ban to ten years.³ A math error or good-faith mistake does not by itself trigger these bans; they follow a final IRS determination of recklessness or fraud. After a denial of the credit through the deficiency process, you have to provide documentation showing eligibility before the IRS will allow the credit again on a future return.

1
Internal Revenue Service. There’s Still Time to File a 2019 Tax Return and Claim Valuable Tax Credits
2
Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Service Publication 596 – Earned Income Credit
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 32 – Earned Income
4
Internal Revenue Service. Qualifying Child Rules
5
Internal Revenue Service. Military and Clergy Rules for the Earned Income Tax Credit
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6511 – Limitations on Credit or Refund
7
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1040-X, Amended US Individual Income Tax Return
8
Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule EIC (Form 1040 or 1040-SR)
9
Internal Revenue Service. Time You Can Claim a Credit or Refund