It depends. If the children are his Qualifying Children, and he is the parent with whom the child lived the longest, then yes he should.
For a Qualifying Child there are 5 tests:
- Relationship: Must be your child, adopted child, foster child, brother or sister, or a descendant of one of these (grand or nephew).
- Residence: Must have the same residence for more than half the year.
- Age: Must be under age 19 or under 24 and a full-time student for at least 5 months. They can be any age if they are totally and permanently disabled.
- Support: Must not have provided more than half of their own support during the year.
- Joint Support: The child cannot file a joint return for the year.
From Qualifying Child of More Than One Person
"Under the tie-breaker rules, the child is generally treated as a qualifying child of:
- The parents if they file a joint return;
- The parent, if only one of the persons is the child's parent;
- The parent with whom the child lived the longest during the tax year if two of the persons are the child's parent and they do not file a joint return together.
- The parent with the highest AGI if the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time during the tax year, and they do not file a joint return together;
- The person with the highest AGI if no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child; or
- A person with higher AGI than any parent who can also claim the child as a qualifying child but does not."
You no longer claim the dependent exemption ($4050 for the tax year 2017) due to the changes made for the 2018 tax reform bill. However, you do still need to know whether the dependent is a Qualifying Child or a Qualifying Relative for the new Child Tax Credit (up to $2000) or the new $500 credit for other dependents.
You can find out more information about taking a dependent on your tax return here.
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