Can i file taxes with no taxable income

For taxpayers who have minimal income and deductions, the IRS Form EZ is the ideal tax return to prepare since it is short and relatively simple to fill out. However, in any year you decide to claim an exemption for your child, you are no longer eligible to prepare the EZ. Instead, you must choose between the A and the full-length Jeff Franco's professional writing career began in With expertise in federal taxation, law and accounting, he has published articles in various online publications.

Share It. References IRS. If you're married, you must also complete this information for your spouse. Enter "" for all income categories. The next portion of the tax return asks about your income. Since you didn't earn any income for the year, you'll enter a "" in each blank. Your total income will also be " For example, if you have money in a savings account that earns interest, you may have to report that interest as income.

Make any applicable adjustments to your income. Since you didn't have any income for the year, you likely don't have any adjustments either. Any adjustments would result in a negative number for your adjusted gross income AGI. Part 2. Gather necessary documents and information. Even though you don't have any income, you may qualify for some refundable credits. If you do, you could get a refund from the IRS even though you didn't pay any taxes during the year. Reconcile any advance premium tax credit you received.

If you purchased health insurance through the Marketplace on healthcare. On the other hand, you may owe the IRS money back if you had too much money advanced.

Since you had no income for the year, this is unlikely to be the case. Figure your child tax credit if you have children. Since you have no income and therefore no tax liability , you may be eligible for the additional child tax credit, which is refundable.

If you're completing your taxes online using tax preparation software, you'll typically just answer a few questions. Compute your education tax credit if you went to school. Many people who report zero income were going to school full time during the year, and may have had an unpaid internship over the summer. Since you have no tax liability, this doesn't do anything for you. However, 40 percent of the tax credit is refundable. You can get that money back even if you didn't owe anything in taxes.

Part 3. Choose your free file software. Some software will do state returns as well. The IRS has a range of tax credits that reduce the amount you have to pay in taxes instead of lowering your taxable income. There are a few different examples of refundable tax credits.

However, the most common refundable tax credit claimed every year is the Earned Income Tax Credit. The problem is that if you want to claim a refundable tax credit, you will need to fill out Form and certain other tax forms. The IRS places limits on the amount of child tax credit you can claim. This stops people from playing the system. A prominent example of this is the home office deduction.