Hoh

[gman]

Taxpayer brought in prior return showing he claimed HOH, Dependent, Child tax credit but no EIC. To claim HOH, the child must have lived with him for half the year, which should also qualify him for EIC. Any reason prior preparer would not give him EIC??

[JG EA]

Taxpayer brought in prior return showing he claimed HOH, Dependent, Child tax credit but no EIC. To claim HOH, the child must have lived with him for half the year, which should also qualify him for EIC. Any reason prior preparer would not give him EIC??

HOH you're saying shows that the child lived with him 1/2 year? I would verify this point, go through TTB list of eligibility, etc and if qualifies - he qualifies.

The 2011 Pub 596 is out - I like to run through that also - just to make sure - especially if I don't do a lot of these early in the season. It seems scary early in the season until I've gone through the rules a few times.

[dan doshan]

Taxpayer brought in prior return showing he claimed HOH, Dependent, Child tax credit but no EIC. To claim HOH, the child must have lived with him for half the year, which should also qualify him for EIC. Any reason prior preparer would not give him EIC??

The obvious question is was his income to high to be eligible for the EIC. If not, then you're right, on the surface it does not seem to jive.

[RitaB]

Agree

Also, appears to me that a lot of people think you're HOH just cause you are single and in a house. If you are the only adult, you gotta be the head, seems to be the consensus around here, at least.

[ToledoEd]

Another question is has the IRS prohibited taxpayer from EIC for prior misconduct?

[dtlee]

Without more information it is impossible to know, but he may be someone's Qualifying Child for EIC purposes. To claim the EIC, a taxpayer cannot be a Qualifying Child of another Taxpayer for EIC purposes even if the other person cannot or does not claim the EIC. Need to know a lot more about who else is living in the household.

[gman]

eic

Taxpayer would qualify for 1,000. in EIC, and on EIC line 64 preparer put NO. Preparer game him HOH, CTC and dependency exemption. Taxpayer has divorce decree granting dependency, but child also spent required time in home. It just does not seem right to give HOH, but not EIC.??//

[taxmom34]

a lot of confusion has been instilled in the public by the census bureau!. they list a single person with an apartment as "head of household"

[Lion]

Investment

Was his investment income too high? Maybe tax-exempts? Someone lived outside the countries allowed? Had ITINs instead of SSNs? Can you/client ask the prior preparer?

[gman]

no investment income

He got a copy of the prior year return from the preparer and he only has w-2 income of
30,000. Never left Texas. Claimed dependent, HOH and CTC, but no EIC??

[dan doshan]

The obvious question is was his income to high to be eligible for the EIC. If not, then you're right, on the surface it does not seem to jive.

Another possible reason is that the previous years preparer just made a mistake and checked some box wrong. On our program all it takes when doing the due diligence is to inadvertently check yes instead of no or vice versa in a particular box and viola a credit disappears.

[MilTaxEA]

He got a copy of the prior year return from the preparer and he only has w-2 income of
30,000. Never left Texas. Claimed dependent, HOH and CTC, but no EIC??

Walk through the requirements with him, and ammend the return if you determine that he qualifies for HoH, CTC, and EIC. You will both end up happy - you get paid to do the return, he gets back another $1000.

[Burke]

Taxpayer would qualify for 1,000. in EIC, and on EIC line 64 preparer put NO.

Did preparer put NO or did the software auto-print that? If software, then something regarding the input for EIC was not checked so as to allow the credit. Review the EIC worksheets.