You can claim a dependent for a
person who is a qualifying child or a
qualifying relative. A dependent
must be your qualifying child or qualifying
relative.A qualifying child can be claimed as a
dependent by only 1 taxpayer.
What is a qualifying child?
Having a qualifying child may enable you
to claim several tax benefits, such as
Head of Household filing status, the
exemption for a dependent, the Child Tax
Credit, the Child and Dependent Care
Credit, and the Earned Income Credit. A
child is considered to be a qualifying
child if they meet all of the following
conditions:
Relationship: The child must be your child
or stepchild (whether by blood or adoption),
foster child, sibling or stepsibling, or
a descendant of one of these.
Residence: The child must live with you
for more than half the tax year. Some exceptions
apply for children of divorced or separated
parents, kidnapped children, temporary absences,
and for children who were born or died during
the year.
Age: The child must be younger
than 19 at the end of the tax year, or
younger than 24 if a full-time student
for at least 5 months of the year.
Children who are permanently and totally
disabled during
the year qualify.
Support: The child can't provide more than
half of his own support for the year.
Exception: If you are not legally
required to file a tax return, then you
may not claim the child tax credit
What is a qualifying relative?
A person is a qualifying relative if that
person is not a qualifying child
(See Publication 501) and meets
the following requirements:
Gross income: The person has gross income
of less than $3,400 for the year.
Support test: You must have provided more
than half that person's support for the
year.
Member of household or relationship test: The person must have either lived with
you for the entire year as a member of your
household or be related to you. Certain
relatives are not required to live with
you for the entire year.
Many exceptions and special rules apply.
See IRS Publication 501.
Tiebreaker Tests
If a child is the qualifying child of 2
people, those individuals can decide who
will claim the child as an exemption, and
for the Child Tax Credit, Head of Household
status, the Child Care Credit and Exclusion
for Employer-provided Child Care Benefits,
and the Earned Income Credit. If more than
1 individual claims any of these benefits
with respect to the child, the IRS will
use the following tests to determine who
gets to claim the child as a dependent (and
for the other tax benefits):
If only 1 of the individuals is the child's
parent, the parent claims the child.
If the 2 people are the child's parents
and they don't file a joint return, the
individual with whom the child lived longer
during the year claims the child. If the
child lived with the parents the same amount
of time, the child is claimed by the parent
with the higher adjusted gross income.
If none of the individuals are the child's
parent, the individual with the highest
adjusted gross income claims the child.
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