Filing with an ITIN in 2025: what changed and what you can still claim

An ITIN lets you file and pay federal tax, and it decides which credits are open to you. Some are, several are not, and in a household with mixed numbers each credit tests its own.

What changed for 2025 and 2026

Both changes are about identification numbers rather than money. For 2025, the child tax credit requires a Social Security number valid for employment on the filer's side as well as for each child, so a household whose filer side has no work-valid number cannot claim it even for a child who has one.

The second change is a year away. Beginning in 2026, the education credits require Social Security numbers valid for work for the filer, or a spouse on a joint return, and for the student. For 2025 those credits still accept an ITIN obtained by the due date of the return, including extensions. The child tax credit and education credits each carry their own rules in full.

What an ITIN is and is not

An ITIN is a nine-digit number the IRS issues to someone who needs a US taxpayer identification number for federal tax purposes but is not eligible for a Social Security number. It exists so that tax can be filed and paid.

It is not work authorization. It does not confer or change immigration status, it does not qualify anyone for Social Security benefits, and it is not identification outside the federal tax system.

The filer's number, not just the child's

This is the part most write-ups get wrong. For the child tax credit, the Social Security number requirement runs on two sides at once, and each side is tested separately.

On the filer's side it is a disjunction. The number can belong to you or, on a joint return, to your spouse, so a couple filing jointly where one spouse has a work-valid Social Security number and the other has an ITIN meets the test. A person filing alone with only an ITIN does not.

On the child's side, each qualifying child needs a Social Security number valid for employment, issued before the due date of the return including extensions. A parent's number never stands in for a child's. The section on the Social Security number rule in the child tax credit has the rest of the credit.

What you can claim with an ITIN

The IRS lists the credit for other dependents, the premium tax credit, the child and dependent care credit and the American opportunity credit among those an ITIN filer may be eligible for. The credit for other dependents is worth $500 per dependent. The American opportunity credit runs up to $2,500 per student, and the lifetime learning credit up to $2,000 per return, both under the identification rules described above for 2025.

Treat that list as a starting point rather than the answer. Each credit's own page governs, and the child tax credit is the proof: it appears open on general principles and is closed by a rule that lives elsewhere.

What you cannot claim

The earned income credit is out. The IRS says plainly that an ITIN does not qualify you for it.

The child tax credit and the refundable additional child tax credit are out whenever neither the filer nor a spouse on a joint return holds a work-valid Social Security number, and out for any particular child who does not have one. What that forgoes is $2,200 per qualifying child, of which up to $1,700 could have been refundable.

Mixed-status households

Households rarely have one kind of number. A joint return may have a Social Security number on one side and an ITIN on the other, with children holding different numbers again.

The rule to carry is that each credit tests its own set of numbers. A household can qualify for one credit and fail another on the same return, and that is not an error. On a joint return the child tax credit's filer test is satisfied by one spouse's work-valid number, while each child is still judged on their own. Filing status covers what filing jointly changes elsewhere.

Renewals

An ITIN that is not used on a federal return for three consecutive tax years expires on December 31 after the third year of non-use. Renewal is Form W-7 again, with the renewal box checked in the application type section, giving the ITIN and the name it was issued under, plus documentation for any name change.

Filing with an expired number causes processing delays and can block credits, which is the quiet cost of skipping years. The IRS answers the edge cases in its ITIN expiration FAQs.

Applying with the return, and what to keep

A first ITIN application is not something you do in advance and then wait on. Form W-7 goes in together with the return it is needed for, along with the identity documents the form requires, and the IRS processes them as one package.

Keep the assignment or renewal letter, copies of the documents you sent, and the returns themselves. The returns are what keep the number alive, and the letter is what proves which number belongs to whom when a household holds several.