Can you file taxes if you didn't work and you have a child?

While earned income credit is for job holders, if you were unemployed and had taxes withheld from income such as alimony, lottery winnings, or investments, then you do have to file to get the taxes back, based on overpayment.

And filing a tax return insures that you get any other payments the government authorizes to families, as they use that as the basis for the checks. Everyone got a stimulus check a year or so ago, but those that hadn't filed taxes didn't get it.

You have to file a tax return to get any retirement withholding back, and also because the IRS requires information on non-taxable and eligible tax-exempt income. And then there are the unemployed heirs in the Rockefeller family, the ones not governing states and such.