Hi everybody, 

For this year, the IRS will allow taxpayers use the amount of the earned income from 2019 to figure out the EITC, but this is what the IRS says: 

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Relief

If your earned income was higher in 2019 than in 2020, you can use the 2019 amount to figure your EITC for 2020. This temporary relief is provided through the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020.

To figure the credit, see Publication 596, Earned Income Credit.

This is my question: if somebody did not have any earned income at all, can they use the 2019 earned income anyway. I would say yes, but I am not sure. I tried using the Interactive Tax Assistant tool, and when they ask to select type of income I chose none and it told me, you do not qualify for the credit. And that gets me confused. It is possible a taxpayer would need some kind of an earned income or it could be 0.