Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable credit. Refundable credits can actually increase your federal refund. Think of EITC as a ‘payment’ the Federal government gives to low- to moderate- income workers to get a break when they do their taxes. The catch is not everyone qualifies for EITC. Let’s go over the basics of qualifying for EITC on your tax return. Just as everything in life, you can’t win if you don’t try or in this case you can’t qualify for EITC if you don’t file a tax return. In some cases, you may qualify for EITC even though you aren’t required to file. If you don’t file for it, you won’t get it. The basic guidelines that everyone must follow are your adjusted gross income (AGI) must be below $48,362, have a valid social security number, cannot file Married Filing Separately, must be a U.S. citizen or resident alien all year, cannot file Form 2555 or Form 2555-EZ, investment income must be less than $3,100 and you must have earned income. AGI and earned income restrictions are based on whether you have children or not. With three or more qualifying children, you must make less than $43,352, or $48,362 if married filing jointly. For two qualifying children, it’s less than $40,363, or $45,373 if married filing jointly. With one child, it’s less than $35,535, or $40,545 if married filing jointly. With no children, the amount is $13,460, or $18,470 if married filing jointly. The number of qualifying children you have also affects the maximum amount of earned income credit you can receive on your tax return for this tax year. Three or more qualifying children may give you $5,666 in EITC. Two may give you $5,036; one may give you $3,050 and with none you may still be able to get $457. Filing your taxes with TaxSlayer.com makes it a cinch because it does all the necessary calculations for you. Filing online with TaxSlayer.com can really help so you don’t miss credits and miss getting your maximum refund.

As with most other things having to do with taxes and your tax return, the answer to, “Is my disability pension taxable?” is, “It depends.” Getting your maximum refund will depend on knowing the details of your own particular situation. You must claim as income on your tax return disability pension from a plan that your employer paid for. It goes on line 7 of Form 1040 or Form 1040A when you do your taxes. The day after you turn minimum retirement age, the payments you receive are taxable as a pension or annuity and not wages. However, if you receive payments in lump-sum for accrued annual leave, do not count these as disability payments, even if you retired on disability. Pay very close attention to every payment that you receive so that your tax refund won’t be impacted. Whether or not you get that maximum refund depends on how you report the money you receive. TaxSlayer.com tax software can help, of course, but it still helps to know the basics. For instance, you may be able to exclude from your income any disability pension associated with serving in the Armed Forces of any country, and certain non-military government service as well. You do not need to include as income any disability payments you get for injuries from a terrorist or military action. These are only a few of the scenarios you may see if you receive disability payments, and how they may affect your tax refund. Check out TaxSlayer.com’s Help Center for a complete resource to our help articles.