EITC Provision

Im not seeing it say that you must have earned income in 2020 to use the 2019 lookback anywhere in Pub 596. 

All it says is that 2019 earned income needs to be more than 2020 earned income.

I started my tax career answering questions at an IRS toll-free site. From there I went to National Office, where I helped write the test questions that GAO used to determine IRS accuracy rates by IRS Taxpayer Service employees. Since you have demonstrated your faith in calling IRS for answers to tax questions, you can have faith in my answers too. I have learned even more since I left.

At IRS we had contempt for practitioners who could not do their own research. Back then, though, the resources available to the public were not as handy as those IRS publications, and the CCH Master Tax Guide, that we had at the phone sites. IRS has about 75,000 employees. Many of those with the least training, especially the seasonal ones, are assigned to answering phones. Why would anyone expect them to have expertise on a law signed a month ago? On the other hand, most of them have enough sense not to read something into the law that is not there.

This whole non-issue started when someone noticed that zero-AGI returns cannot be e-filed. That would include returns with EIC based on 2019 income, as well as returns eligible for the recovery rebate credit. How that situation got perverted into one involving zero-earned income returns, maybe a psychologist could explain.

"more like dead horses"

I envision people running in circles like chickens with their heads just cut off.

I don't understand why everyone is so hot-to-trot, when the IRS isn't even receiving until mid-Feb and the programs are not finalized. I know what it is like to want to meet deadlines, but being ahead of the software and the receiving agency means everyone should calm down. Look at last year; you no longer get to file the majority of the returns by mid-April, then take off a few weeks. What is going to happen this year? You should be resting now, in preparation for the upcoming slog. Take A Break; you deserve it.