EITC question

[weluvdizne]

I sat down with H&R Block online to figure out our taxes. According to my research, we should qualify for the EITC. However, H&R Block says we don't. What am I missing? I used our income and # of children. We are filing married joint. What else is taken into account?

 

[vicki_c]

Here's a link to the rules for qualifying:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=218782,00.html

 

[StuckInKS]

I sat down with H&R Block online to figure out our taxes. According to my research, we should qualify for the EITC. However, H&R Block says we don't. What am I missing? I used our income and # of children. We are filing married joint. What else is taken into account?

Do this:

1. Click on the "credits" tab.
2. Scroll down to and click on "Earned Income Credit"
3. It will give you a page with four disqualifying questions. Click "next"
4. The next page will be titled "Dependents for Earned Income Credit".
5. Make sure all of your children (up to 3) are listed on this page AND that all of then have a "yes" under "Claim for EIC?" If not, you will have to click on each child's name and enter some info to change this.

This is what I had to do to make our EIC show up with H&R Block online.

 

[weluvdizne]

Thanks for the link. That is exactly where I got my original info from.

I just double checked the qualifications, and triple checked my math, and we should qualify.

There is no place on H&R Block to ask a question like this, unless you want to pay $19.95 or more to ask the question.

UGH!!!

 

[weluvdizne]

Do this:

1. Click on the "credits" tab.
2. Scroll down to and click on "Earned Income Credit"
3. It will give you a page with four disqualifying questions. Click "next"
4. The next page will be titled "Dependents for Earned Income Credit".
5. Make sure all of your children (up to 3) are listed on this page AND that all of then have a "yes" under "Claim for EIC?" If not, you will have to click on each child's name and enter some info to change this.

This is what I had to do to make our EIC show up with H&R Block online.

Thank you for this info. I appreciate it. However, it won't even let me do that. It just automatically says "since your income is too high you don't qualify for EITC" It then, only gives me options to go back or forward on to the next topic, completely unrelated.

 

[vicki_c]

Thank you for this info. I appreciate it. However, it won't even let me do that. It just automatically says "since your income is too high you don't qualify for EITC" It then, only gives me options to go back or forward on to the next topic, completely unrelated.

Well based on that I would simply say that your adjusted gross income is higher than the cut offs for the EIC. (The AGI limits are in a link on that same page I linked to earlier if you want to check them yourself.)

Actually here it is:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=150513,00.html

If you KNOW you qualify based on those numbers, there seem to be 2 choices:
1 - there is an error in your return somewhere causing your AGI to be higher than it should be, or
2 - there is an error in the program itself.

We also don't qualify for it, so I can't speak from my own online H&R block experience.

 

[StuckInKS]

Thank you for this info. I appreciate it. However, it won't even let me do that. It just automatically says "since your income is too high you don't qualify for EITC" It then, only gives me options to go back or forward on to the next topic, completely unrelated.

That's too bad. Are you sure that you listed all of your children with their SSNs in the "Personal Information" section?

If so, and your are sure you meet all of the qualifications listed on the IRS website, then maybe you should consider using another website, like TurboTax or TaxAct. You can even re-enter your info into these other websites to double check without purchasing or filing. If they come up with the same thing, then maybe you missed something. You could also pay the $20 to ask H&R Block. You don't want to miss out on a deduction or credit or qualify for.

 

[Vijoge]

I sat down with H&R Block online to figure out our taxes. According to my research, we should qualify for the EITC. However, H&R Block says we don't. What am I missing? I used our income and # of children. We are filing married joint. What else is taken into account?

Did you earn more than $48,362 ? If so, you don't qualify for the credit.

 

[mickeynminnie08]

This is what the website says
($45,373 married filing jointly) with two qualifying children .
We went to H&R Block earlier today and that is what their sheet said for our family, so they have the right info.

 

[LisaNJ25]

That's too bad. Are you sure that you listed all of your children with their SSNs in the "Personal Information" section?

If so, and your are sure you meet all of the qualifications listed on the IRS website, then maybe you should consider using another website, like TurboTax or TaxAct. You can even re-enter your info into these other websites to double check without purchasing or filing. If they come up with the same thing, then maybe you missed something. You could also pay the $20 to ask H&R Block. You don't want to miss out on a deduction or credit or qualify for.

That is what I was going to suggest. I do mine in Taxact, turbo tax and H&R Block. I filled with taxact because they were cheaper.

 

[whois figment]

Not sure about H&R software but in Turbotax I had to go back and qualify my children in the dependent section.

 

[Colleen27]

If you want to try to run it in different software, Turbotax has a free file program for people who qualify for the EITC at statetaxfreedom.com. You could put in your numbers there to see if it gives you the same result. Or for a quicker estimation, they have a "Do you qualify?" calculator here - http://eitc.intuit.com/calctools/

 

[dkr7166]

I would presonally use a different program. I had an IRA rollover a few years back and then did a Roth conversion on the old 401k. H&R Block's program was a NIGHTMARE to figure out how to enter the info and like you, I didn't want to pay them $20 to tell me what I already knew when I qualify for free file. Heck, at this time I was being paid to do other people's taxes, so I definitely knew how to do my own. They would only tell me there was an error on my return but wouldn't tell me where to go to fix it. I have since sworn to never use Tax Cut again because it is so un-user friendly.

 

[sharonmickey]

I've used Turbo Tax the past few years. As PP said, try another program. Good luck, hope it works out for you.

 

[weluvdizne]

If you want to try to run it in different software, Turbotax has a free file program for people who qualify for the EITC at statetaxfreedom.com. You could put in your numbers there to see if it gives you the same result. Or for a quicker estimation, they have a "Do you qualify?" calculator here - http://eitc.intuit.com/calctools/

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
This calculator really helped. I knew that some of our income was not included in the total you can earn and qualify for EITC, but apparently we have other income that is added in later, but still part of our AGI, and even if your "earned income" qualifies you, you can be disqualified by your "un-earned income". It was separated on this calculator. That made it click in my head and I pulled out last year's return and looked at the actual 1040 sheet and saw all this broken up.
We have never qualified for EITC before, so this is new to us.

So, to sum it up, we qualify according to our "earned income" but not once you figure in our "un-earned income".
Regardless, I think the advice to double/triple check with other software is an excellent piece of advice and will do so tomorrow.

Thanks again, everyone. I appreciate everyone's insight!

 

[Kitten0819]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
This calculator really helped. I knew that some of our income was not included in the total you can earn and qualify for EITC, but apparently we have other income that is added in later, but still part of our AGI, and even if your "earned income" qualifies you, you can be disqualified by your "un-earned income". It was separated on this calculator. That made it click in my head and I pulled out last year's return and looked at the actual 1040 sheet and saw all this broken up.
We have never qualified for EITC before, so this is new to us.

So, to sum it up, we qualify according to our "earned income" but not once you figure in our "un-earned income".
Regardless, I think the advice to double/triple check with other software is an excellent piece of advice and will do so tomorrow.

Thanks again, everyone. I appreciate everyone's insight!

This is correct, i was also going to ask if you have any investment income as that can disqualify you too.