EITC residency test: the more-than-half-the-year rule

The rule and its home-address test

The residency test is one of the four qualifying child tests, with relationship, age and joint return. Publication 596 states it in a single line: your child must have lived with you in the United States for more than half of the year. The United States means the 50 states and the District of Columbia and does not include Puerto Rico or territories such as Guam. Your home can be any location where you regularly live, and you do not need a traditional home: a child who lived with you for more than half the year in one or more homeless shelters meets the test. Expenses do not substitute for residence: paying most of a child's costs does not help if the child lived elsewhere for more than half the year.

Counting the half

More than half of a 365-day year is 183 days or more; 182 days is less than half (182.5) and fails. The checker adds days at home to days of temporary absence and compares the total with the number of days the child was alive in the year. If you enter 365, it needs at least 183. For a leap year enter 366, which needs at least 184. The publication does not give a day count, only the phrase "more than half," so the arithmetic above is our reading of it; keep school and childcare records or other records showing your child's address in case the IRS asks. The publication says the IRS may ask for documents proving residence.

Temporary absences count as time at home

The publication tells you to count time that you or your child is away on a temporary absence due to a special circumstance as time the child lived with you. Its examples are illness, school attendance, business, vacation, military service and detention in a juvenile facility. A college student living in a dorm during the school year and at your home on breaks is the usual illustration of school attendance. What matters is that the absence is temporary and that the child's main home stays with you. This is why a child who is at boarding school but returns to you every holiday can still meet the test, while a child who moved in with the other parent does not.

Special cases

A child born or who died during the year is treated as having lived with you for more than half the year if your home was the child's home for more than half the time the child was alive in the year. That is why the checker lets you change the number of days alive. For a child you adopted during the year who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption in that year, or an eligible foster child placed with you during the year, the child meets the test if your main home was the child's main home for more than half the time since the adoption or placement. A kidnapped child is treated as living with you for more than half the year if the child lived with you for more than half the part of the year before the kidnapping or after return, when law enforcement presumes a non-family kidnapper; you enter KC on line 6 of Schedule EIC. Military personnel stationed outside the U.S. on extended active duty, meaning called or ordered for an indefinite period or for more than 90 days, are considered to live in the U.S. during that period.

Worked example

Your daughter was born on July 1, so she was alive 184 days (July 1 to December 31). She lived with you the whole time. Enter 184 days at home and 184 days alive: more than 92 are needed, so she passes easily. Now a different case: your son is 10, spent 150 days with his other parent, was at your home 205 days and was away at summer camp for the other 10 days. Enter 205 days at home and 10 days of temporary absence: 215 is more than 182.5, so it passes. If instead he had spent 190 days with his other parent and you had 175, it fails and the other parent has the stronger claim, then the tiebreaker rules in our tiebreaker page decide any dispute.

Forms and what to keep

If the child lived with you in the United States for more than half the year, you check both boxes (a) and (b) on row 5 of the Dependents section of Form 1040 or 1040-SR, and check the box to the right of the address block. Publication 596 suggests keeping school and childcare records and anything else that shows the child's address. Divorced and separated parents should also read the special rule for noncustodial parents, which applies to dependency but leaves the credit with the custodial parent or another eligible taxpayer; our EITC estimator estimates the amount once you qualify.

Sources

• IRS Publication 596, Earned Income Credit (EIC) (2025): Rule 8, Residency Test: United States, Homeless shelter, Military personnel stationed outside the United States, Extended active duty, Birth or death of child, Temporary absences, Adopted child, Kidnapped child; Rule 14. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 596 (2025), Earned Income Credit (EIC), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Dollar amounts and dates on this page are the 2025 figures printed in that edition; they change by tax year, so check the current publication and form instructions for the year you file. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.