It sounds like you qualify to claim him based on his income. However, the eligibility requirements are different depending on if he is permanently disabled or not. He must qualify as your dependent under one of the sets of rules below.
Qualifying Child Rules: These rules apply if he is
permanently disabled.
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Are they related to you? The
child can be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child,
brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister,
adopted child or an offspring of any of them.
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Do they meet the age requirement? Your child must be under
age 19 or, if a full-time student, under age 24. There is no age limit
if your child is permanently and totally disabled.
- Do they live with you? Your child must live with you for more than half the year, but several exceptions apply.
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Do you financially support them? Your child may have a job, but that job cannot provide more than half of her support.
- Are you the only person claiming them?
This requirement commonly applies to children of divorced parents. Here
you must use the “tie breaker rules,” which are found in IRS Publication 501. These rules establish income, parentage and residency requirements for claiming a child.
Qualifying Relative Rules: These rules apply if he is
not permanently disabled.
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Do they live with you? Your relative must live at your
residence all year or be on the list of “relatives who do not live with
you” in Publication 501. About 30 types of relatives are on this list.
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Do they make less than $4,150 in 2018? Your relative cannot have a gross income of more than $4,150 in 2018 and be claimed by you as a dependent.
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Do you financially support them? You must provide more than half of your relative’s total support each year.
- Are you the only person claiming them? This
means you can’t claim the same person twice, once as a qualifying
relative and again as a qualifying child. It also means you can’t claim a
relative—say a cousin—if someone else, such as his parents, also claim
him.
