Am I eligible for EITC with low income and no dependents? How to calculate my potential credit?

You're on the right track! For 2022, individuals with no qualifying children were eligible for the EITC if their AGI was less than $16,480 ($22,610 if married filing jointly). Since your AGI was around $16,800, you're slightly over the threshold for singles with no children. However, tax software would be the easiest way to calculate this accurately. The actual calculation involves several steps including multiplying your income by a percentage and then applying phase-out rates depending on your filing status. Most people don't calculate it manually anymore. Just to be thorough, you should also make sure you meet the other basic requirements: you must have a valid SSN, be a U.S. citizen or resident alien all year, not file Form 2555 (foreign earned income), have investment income less than $10,300, and not be claimed as a dependent by anyone else.

I was in a similar situation last year and found that taxr.ai was a huge help with figuring out EITC eligibility. I was confused about whether I qualified with my side gig income, and the regular tax software I was using gave me different answers depending on how I entered things. I uploaded my documents to https://taxr.ai and it analyzed everything and showed exactly what I qualified for and how it calculated the amount. Saved me a lot of headache and second-guessing.

Just wanted to update everyone - I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and it was really helpful! I uploaded my W2 and some 1099s from previous years, and it immediately showed me that for 2022 I was just over the threshold for EITC with no kids, but I qualified in 2021! I wouldn't have known to claim it for that year otherwise. The explanations were super clear about exactly why I qualified one year but not the other. Definitely worth checking out if you're filing multiple years or have a complicated situation.

If you need to call the IRS to get more info about your amended return status or EITC questions, I highly recommend using Claimyr. I spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS about my amended return (kept getting disconnected or "call volume too high" messages). Then I found https://claimyr.com and they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in less than 20 minutes. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they navigate the phone tree and wait on hold for you, then call you when an agent is ready. Saved me so much frustration!

I take back what I said. I was super skeptical about Claimyr but I was desperate to resolve my amended return issues, so I tried it yesterday. Holy crap it actually works! Got a text that they were calling the IRS for me, then about 45 mins later got another text that an agent was on the line. Got connected immediately to a real person who helped me sort out my amended return status AND answered my EITC questions. Apparently I've been eligible for EITC for the past two years but didn't claim it! Now I'm filing amended returns for those years too. Definitely worth it for the info I got.

Ok so about your actual question - the EITC calculation is pretty complicated, which is why most people use software. But here's the basic formula for 2022 if you really want to do it manually: 1. For no qualifying children, the credit percentage is 7.65% 2. Maximum credit amount for no qualifying children was $560 3. Phaseout begins at $9,160 for single filers 4. Phaseout percentage is 7.65% 5. Completely phased out at $16,480 for single filers So if your AGI is $16,800, you're unfortunately just over the limit and wouldn't qualify at all.

I've heard that the EITC is different for each tax year because of inflation adjustments. Does anyone know what the threshold was for 2021? I'm trying to figure out if I should amend my return.

Just wanted to add some context about why you might be behind on your taxes - the IRS has been dealing with massive processing delays, especially for amended returns. Your February 2022 amended return not getting processed until December 2022 is unfortunately pretty typical of what many people experienced during that period. For your current situation, as others have mentioned, you're just over the 2022 EITC threshold. But definitely keep those expanded 2021 rules in mind that @Freya Pedersen mentioned - if you were between 19-24 in 2021, you might have qualified under the special COVID provisions even if you didn't think you were eligible at the time. The income limits were much higher that year, so it's worth double-checking your 2021 situation. Also, make sure you're calculating your AGI correctly. Your AGI should generally be close to your earned income if you're just filing a basic return with W-2 income. If there's a big difference between your W-2 wages ($13,100) and your calculated AGI ($16,800), you might want to double-check that calculation or see if there are other income sources you forgot about.