Claiming your child as a dependent

To claim your child as your dependent, your child must meet the qualifying child test or the qualifying relative test.

 Qualifying Child Rules

Relationship

• Your son, daughter, adopted child, stepchild, foster child or a descendant of any of them such as your grandchild
• Brother, sister, half brother, half sister, step brother, step sister or a descendant of any of them such as a niece or nephew

Age

• At the end of the filing year, your child was younger than you (or your spouse if you file a joint return) and younger than 19
• At the end of the filing year, your child was younger than you (or your spouse if you file a joint return) younger than 24 and a full-time student
• At the end of the filing year, your child was any age and permanently and totally disabled¹

Residency

• Child must live with you (or your spouse if you file a joint return) in the United States for more than half of the year

Joint Return

• The child cannot file a joint return for the tax year unless the child and the child's spouse did not have a separate filing requirement and filed the joint return only to claim a refund.

IMPORTANT:  Only one person can claim the same child. If a child qualifies for more than one person and one of the persons is a parent or parents, the non-parent can claim the child only if their AGI is higher than the parent(s). If the child qualifies another relative and the parent AGI rules do not apply, the taxpayers choose. If more than one person claims the same child, IRS applies the tiebreaker rules.

¹Permanently and totally disabled.  Your child is permanently and totally disabled if both of the following apply: The child cannot engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a physical or mental condition and a doctor determines the condition has lasted or can be expected to last at least a year or lead to death.

 Qualifying Relative 

 To be a your qualifying relative, the person cannot be your qualifying child, and must live with you all year as a member of your household, or be related to you in any of the following ways doesn't have to live with you all year as a member of your household to meet this test.

• Your child, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild). (A legally adopted child is considered your child.)
  
• Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, or stepsister.
  
• Your father, mother, grandparent, or other direct ancestor, but not foster parent.
  
• Your stepfather or stepmother.
  
• A son or daughter of your brother or sister.
  
• A son or daughter of your half brother or half sister.
  
• A brother or sister of your father or mother.
  
• Your son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law.
  

Any of these relationships that were established by marriage aren't ended by death or divorce.
 A person's gross income for the year must be less than $4,000 and you generally must provide more than half of a person's total support during the calendar year. 

If two or more persons provide support, but no one person provides more than half of a person's total support, you can agree that any one of you who individually provides more than 10% of the person's support, but only one, can claim an exemption for that person as a qualifying relative. Each of the others must sign a statement agreeing not to claim the exemption for that year. The person who claims the exemption must keep these signed statements for his or her records. A multiple support declaration identifying each of the others who agreed not to claim the exemption must be attached to the return of the person claiming the exemption. Form 2120 can be used for this purpose. 

 Unlike a qualifying child, a qualifying relative can be any age.


In addition to meeting the qualifying child or qualifying relative test, you may claim a dependency exemption for your child as long as all of the following tests are met:

• If you can be claimed as a dependent by another person, you cannot claim anyone else as a dependent.  
• You generally cannot claim a married person as a dependent if he or she files a joint return. (only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid).
•  You generally cannot claim a person as a dependent unless that person is a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, U.S. national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico (Exception for adopted child). 

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