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Fileid: … tions/p596/2022/a/xml/cycle05/source
The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.
Example 3—Child younger than your spouse but Residency Test 16:34 - 20-Dec-2022
not younger than you. The facts are the same as in Ex-
ample 2 except that your spouse is 25 years old. Because Your child must have lived with you in the United States
B is younger than your spouse, B is your qualifying child, for more than half of 2022.
even though B isn't younger than you.
You can't claim the EIC for a child who didn't live
Student defined. To qualify as a student, your child ! with you for more than half of the year, even if you
must be, during some part of each of any 5 calendar CAUTION paid most of the child's living expenses. The IRS
months during the calendar year: may ask you for documents to show you lived with each
1. A full-time student at a school that has a regular qualifying child. Documents you might want to keep for
this purpose include school and childcare records and
teaching staff, course of study, and regular student other records that show your child's address.
body at the school; or
2. A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course The following paragraphs clarify the residency test.
given by a school described in (1), or a state, county, United States. This means the 50 states and the District
or local government. of Columbia. It doesn't include Puerto Rico or U.S. pos-
The 5 calendar months need not be consecutive. sessions such as Guam.
A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the
number of hours or courses the school considers to be Homeless shelter. Your home can be any location
full-time attendance. where you regularly live. You don't need a traditional
School defined. A school can be an elementary home. For example, if your child lived with you for more
than half the year in one or more homeless shelters, your
school, junior or senior high school, college, university, or child meets the residency test.
technical, trade, or mechanical school. However,
on-the-job training courses, correspondence schools, and Military personnel stationed outside the United
schools offering courses only through the Internet don't States. U.S. military personnel stationed outside the Uni-
count as schools for the EIC. ted States on extended active duty are considered to live
Vocational high school students. Students who in the United States during that duty period for purposes
work in co-op jobs in private industry as a part of a of the EIC.
school's regular course of classroom and practical training Extended active duty. Extended active duty means
are considered full-time students. you are called or ordered to duty for an indefinite period or
for a period of more than 90 days. Once you begin serving
Permanently and totally disabled. Your child is per- your extended active duty, you are still considered to have
manently and totally disabled if both of the following apply. been on extended active duty even if you don't serve

1. Your child can’t engage in any substantial gainful ac- more than 90 days.
tivity because of a physical or mental condition. Birth or death of child. A child who was born or died in
2. A doctor determines the condition has lasted or can 2022 is treated as having lived with you for more than half
be expected to last continuously for at least a year or of 2022 if your home was the child's home for more than
can lead to death. half the time the child was alive in 2022.
Substantial gainful activity. Substantial gainful activ- Temporary absences. Count time that you or your child
ity means performing significant duties over a reasonable is away from home on a temporary absence due to a spe-
period of time while working for pay or profit, or in work cial circumstance as time the child lived with you. Exam-
generally done for pay or profit. Full-time work (or ples of a special circumstance include illness, school at-
part-time work done at an employer's convenience) in a tendance, business, vacation, military service, and
competitive work situation for at least the minimum wage detention in a juvenile facility.
shows that the child can engage in substantial gainful ac-
tivity. Adopted child. If you adopted a child in 2022, and that
Substantial gainful activity isn't work done to take care child was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption by
of yourself or your home. It isn't unpaid work on hobbies, you in 2022, or the child was an eligible foster child placed
institutional therapy or training, school attendance, clubs, with you during 2022, the child is considered to have lived
social programs, and similar activities. However, doing with you for more than half of 2022 if your main home was
this kind of work may show that the child is able to engage this child's main home for more than half the time this child
in substantial gainful activity. was adopted or placed with you in 2022.
The fact that the child hasn’t worked for some time
doesn't, by itself, prove the child can’t engage in substan- Kidnapped child. A kidnapped child is treated as living
tial gainful activity. with you for more than half of the year if the child lived with
For examples of substantial gainful activity, see Pub. you for more than half the part of the year before the date
524. of the kidnapping or following the date of the child's return.
The child must be presumed by law enforcement authori-
ties to have been kidnapped by someone who isn't a

Chapter 2 Rules if You Have a Qualifying Child Page 11