If you are a low- to middle-income wage earner or self-employed worker, you may be eligible for the Earned Income Credit (EIC). This is a refundable tax credit, so if your credit amount is higher than your tax bill, you can actually get the unused part of the credit as a payment from the government.
For 2001, the income limits to receive an EIC are $10,710 for workers age 25 to 64 with no qualifying children, $28,281 for workers of any age with one qualifying child, and $32,121 for workers with two or more qualifying children.
The EIC is based on a percentage of your income, but it is phased out as your income rises. To find out the actual amount of your EIC, you must complete the EIC worksheets provided below.
earned income credit worksheets
In order to use the worksheets, you will also need to use the EIC tables:
2002 earned income credit table
The file is in Adobe portable document format (PDF), which requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
To get a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader software, go to the Adobe web site.
For more information, see our discussion of how the EIC is computed.