Only taxpayers with a “qualifying child” get large EICs. A “qualifying child” must meet 3 tests: relationship, age, and residency. The definition of “qualifying child” also requires that the child be younger than the person claiming the child and that the child have not filed their own return. This situation can happen when a person adopts an older adult to insure that benefits or property flow to that person upon death.1
- 1This was a common estate planning technique for same-sex couples before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015).