How to Claim the EITC in Texas (and File for Free)

Start with the part that surprises a lot of people. There's no separate EITC application. You claim it by filing your federal tax return, Form 1040. If you have qualifying children, you also fill out Schedule EIC and attach it. That's it. Once your return is filed, the credit is figured in automatically.

One thing trips people up here. You have to file a return to get the money, even if you don't owe any tax and aren't otherwise required to file. The EITC is what's called a refundable credit. That means if the credit is bigger than the tax you owe, the difference comes back to you as a refund. But it only comes back if you file.

For tax year 2025, the federal EITC is worth up to $8,046, depending on your income and how many qualifying children you have. The full amount goes to families with three or more children. Smaller credits go to people with fewer children or none.

If you live in Texas, the federal credit is the whole story. Texas doesn't have a state income tax, so there's no state EITC stacked on top. What you see on your federal return is what you get. That's not a downside, it just means you have one return to deal with instead of two.

Expect a wait on the refund, and know it's normal. By law, the IRS can't send out any refund that includes the EITC until mid-February, even if you file in January. This isn't a problem with your return. It's a rule that applies to everyone claiming the credit, meant to cut down on fraud. If you file early and choose direct deposit, the IRS expects most of these refunds to land by early March.

Now the part hardly anyone tells you about, and it's worth real money. You can go back and claim the EITC for past years you missed. You have three years from the original due date of a return to file or amend it and still get the refund. So if you qualified in 2022, 2023, or 2024 and never claimed the credit, that money may still be sitting there waiting for you.

Here's how that works. If you never filed for one of those years, you can still file that year's return now. If you filed but left the EITC off, you fix it by filing Form 1040-X, the amended return. People who didn't file because they didn't earn much, or assumed they owed nothing, are exactly the ones who tend to leave this money on the table. It's worth checking each of those three years. (If a back tax year feels tangled, here's a plain-English look at what happens when you don't file.)

Whatever you do, don't pay someone to file a return that you can file for free. Texas has free, in-person help from people trained and certified by the IRS, through a program called VITA, which stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. These volunteers prepare your return at no cost, and most sites can e-file it for you the same way a paid preparer would. They'll also make sure you claim every credit you're owed, including the EITC and any prior-year returns.

Finding a site is straightforward. You can look one up at IRS.gov/VITA, or call 2-1-1, the free statewide help line, and ask for the nearest free tax prep location. The Texas Comptroller also keeps a page of EITC information and VITA locations across the state. Any of these three will get you to a real person who can sit down with your paperwork.

So here's where you stand. You qualify, the credit is real, and claiming it is a matter of filing the right return and not overpaying to do it. File your 2025 return with Schedule EIC if you have qualifying children, check whether 2022, 2023, or 2024 are still open to you, and use a VITA site so you keep every dollar.

If you'd rather not sort through it alone, that's what we're here for. Turnout can help you figure out which years you can still claim and walk with you through filing, so nothing you've earned slips by. Use Radar by Turnout, our free benefits scan, and let's get what's yours back in your hands.