Under the Tax Relief Act of 2020, if your clients’ 2019 income was greater than their 2020 income, they can use their 2019 income to calculate their EITC for their 2021 tax return. This is beneficial for those who didn’t earn income in 2020 and therefore would not qualify for the EITC. However, in most other cases, using the lower income amount would be more helpful as this usually provides a larger EITC.