530A Eligibility Checker
Three questions, instant answer, the seed, the Dell gift, both, or neither.
How 530A eligibility works
The checker reviews three things. First, the $1,000 federal deposit for U.S. citizen children with a Social Security number born from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2028. Second, the $250 Dell Foundation gift for children born from 2016 through 2024 who live in ZIP codes that meet the median-income requirement. Use the ZIP lookup to check your area. Third, eligibility to open the account. A child who receives neither deposit can still have a 530A and receive contributions if they meet the citizenship, SSN, and age requirements. Eligibility does not mean the money has already posted; see the deposit status guide after approval.
530A accounts, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and officially marketed by the federal government as "Trump Accounts," launched on July 4, 2026. Timing matters: enrollment must happen by the year before your child turns 18, and ordinary withdrawals are blocked until January 1 of the year they turn 18. The earlier you open the account, the more years compounding gets to work; the contribution maximizer puts a dollar figure on waiting. Review the limited exceptions in the withdrawal guide. Official eligibility criteria live at IRS.gov and the official federal portal; the Dell program details come from Treasury.gov announcements.
Citizenship and the SSN requirement apply to the child, not the parent. The Dell gift uses the median income for your ZIP code, not your household income. Because ZIP boundaries are fixed, nearby families can receive different results. The Foundation's official determination is final.
Example results and what they mean
A U.S. citizen child with an SSN born in 2026 falls inside the federal seed window, so the checker identifies the potential $1,000 deposit and general account eligibility. A child born in 2020 falls outside that federal window but may qualify for the separate Dell gift based on ZIP. A child outside both gift windows may still be eligible to open an account; “no starting deposit” is not the same as “no account.”
The checker applies the published birth-year, citizenship, SSN, age, and ZIP rules only. It cannot verify identity, determine whether another authorized adult already made the election, confirm that the IRS accepted Form 4547, or see an account's funding status. Treat the result as a routing guide: use it to identify the relevant benefit, then complete the official election and rely on the IRS or account administrator for the final determination.
Facts to gather before using the official process
Have the child’s legal name, date of birth, citizenship status, SSN, home ZIP, and any prior election or account notice available. For a newborn or recently updated record, confirm that the identity information has propagated to the systems used by the official process before interpreting a mismatch as permanent ineligibility. If another parent or authorized adult may have acted, coordinate before filing again.
Keep gift eligibility separate from account eligibility in your notes. Record which result came from a published birth window, which came from the ZIP estimate, and which must be decided by the IRS or sponsor. That separation makes it easier to troubleshoot an approved account with a missing deposit and prevents a failed gift test from being mistaken for a prohibition on opening the account.