EITC and foster children: who qualifies

The relationship test includes foster children

The credit for taxpayers with children uses a four-part qualifying child test: relationship, age, residency and joint return. Publication 596 lists a foster child alongside a son, daughter and stepchild in the relationship test, and also lists descendants of those children, and siblings and their descendants. So a foster child does not need to be a relative; what matters is how the child came to live with you. An adopted child, including one lawfully placed with you for legal adoption, is always treated as your own.

What counts as a foster child

For the credit a person is your foster child if the child was placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by a judgment, decree or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. An authorized placement agency includes a state or local government agency, a tax-exempt organization licensed by a state, and an Indian tribal government or an organization authorized by one to place Indian children. The publication's example is Dean, 12, placed in your care two years earlier by an authorized agency responsible for placing children in foster homes: Dean is your foster child. A child you simply look after informally, with no agency or court involved, does not fit this foster child definition.

Age test

The child must be under 19 at year end and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly); or under 24, a full-time student and younger than you; or any age and permanently and totally disabled. Full-time student means enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers full time during some part of each of any 5 calendar months of the year; the months need not be consecutive. A school can be an elementary, secondary, college, university or technical, trade or mechanical school, but on-the-job training, correspondence schools and schools offering courses only through the Internet do not count.

Residency test and the placement date

The foster child must have lived with you in the United States for more than half the year. The publication has a specific rule for children placed during the year: if an eligible foster child was placed with you during the year, the child is considered to have lived with you for more than half the year if your main home was the child's main home for more than half the time the child was placed with you in that year. So a child placed in October needs more than half of the months since October, not half of the calendar year. Temporary absences for illness, school, vacation, military service or detention in a juvenile facility count as time at home. See our full residency test page.

Payments, income and filing details

Nontaxable foster care payments are listed in the publication among items that are not earned income, so they do not count toward the earned income you need to qualify and do not themselves create eligibility. Taxable pay you earn does. The child must have a valid SSN issued by the due date of your return, including extensions, for you to claim the higher credit amount based on that child. Without one the child still goes on Schedule EIC, and you may qualify for the self-only credit. A foster child also cannot be used by more than one person for the credit; if another household could also claim the child, the tiebreaker rules apply, as in our tiebreaker page.

A worked example

A single foster parent age 35 earned $22,000, AGI $22,000. A county agency placed a 9-year-old with them on April 1; the child stayed through year end, 9 months, with no absence. The foster parent checks placement (yes), under 19 and younger (yes), more than half the time since placement (9 of 9 months, yes) and no joint return. The checker above shows the child qualifies. With one qualifying child the 2025 earned income and AGI limit is $50,434 ($57,554 jointly), so the parent clears it, and the amount comes from the EIC table. If the same child were 20, not a student and not disabled, the age test would fail even though the placement was proper.

Sources

• IRS Publication 596, Earned Income Credit (EIC) (2025): Rule 8: Relationship Test (Foster child, Adopted child), Age Test, Residency Test (Adopted child or eligible foster child placed during the year, Temporary absences), Joint Return Test; Rule 7, Income That Is Not Earned Income; Rule 9. 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.