(Epoch Times)The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is encouraging taxpayers to claim their Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as part of the annual EITC Awareness Day outreach campaign to help millions of Americans secure credits this year, the agency said in a statement on Jan. 23.

EITC is aimed at low-income taxpayers who obtain credits if they have children, dependents, or disabilities. The credits can be used to reduce the amount of tax they owe, potentially increasing their refunds.

“The Earned Income Tax Credit is vital to supporting working American families and rewarding them for their hard work,” IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said.

“The IRS encourages every taxpayer who qualifies for the credit to claim the full amount they are due under the Internal Revenue Code.”

Last year, an estimated 23.5 million workers and families benefited from the program, receiving roughly $68.5 billion in EITC payments. This calculates to $2,916 in payments on average.

Low-income taxpayers may be eligible for the EITC, and the amount of credit will be affected by whether the recipients have children, dependents, or a disability, according to the IRS website.

The agency estimates that about 1 in 5 taxpayers eligible for EITC do not claim the credit, underscoring the importance of the annual outreach campaign.

Taxpayers can use the EITC Assistant tool to check their eligibility and estimate their credit amount. The IRS encouraged electronic filing of returns and the use of direct deposit for faster refunds.

The IRS expects most of the early EITC or Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) refunds to be “available in taxpayer bank accounts or debit card by March 2, 2026, if they choose direct deposit and there are no other issues with the return. Some taxpayers may have access to their refunds sooner, depending on their financial institution’s process.”

The IRS’s “Where’s My Refund?” tool, which allows taxpayers to check their refund status, “will be updated with projected deposit dates for most early EITC/ACTC refund filers by Feb. 21, 2026,” the agency said.

2026 Filing Season

Earlier this month, the IRS announced that the 2026 filing season for submitting 2025 tax returns would begin on Jan. 26, with the final deadline set at April 15.
At the time, Bisignano affirmed that the agency was fully prepared for the filing season.

The IRS “is ready to help taxpayers meet their tax filing and payment obligations during the 2026 filing season,” he said.

“IRS information systems have been updated to incorporate the new tax laws and are ready to efficiently and effectively process taxpayer returns during the filing season.”

The agency said it is expecting to receive roughly 164 million individual income tax returns this time.

In a Jan. 14 statement, the IRS encouraged taxpayers to prepare to file their taxes for the current season by gathering and organizing all relevant records needed to file returns.
This includes Form W-2 from their employer, Form 1099-K to report incomes from gig work, Form 1099-INT for people who receive interest, and Form 1099 from banks and other payers if taxpayers receive dividends, pensions, or retirement plan distributions.

On Jan. 23, the IRS announced the release of FAQs addressing new deductions for qualified overtime compensation under the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in July.

The provision allows taxpayers receiving qualified overtime compensation to deduct the amount exceeding their regular rate of pay when filing returns for tax years 2025 through 2028. The overtime pay must be reported on Form W-2 or Form 1099, the IRS said.

The FAQs can help employees determine whether the overtime compensation they received qualifies for such deductions, according to the agency. It also contains useful information on the differences in reporting requirements between tax year 2025 and tax years 2026-2028.

Meanwhile, the $1,776 “warrior dividend” payments announced by Trump to 1.45 million military personnel before Christmas 2025 won’t be subjected to taxation, the IRS said last week. The payments were excluded from taxation under U.S. tax law provisions that exempt “qualified military benefits” from taxation.