Amending 2024 and 2023 taxes

[CCrain]

I have been raising my grandchildren, paying for all of their care for the entire year for 2023 and 2024.  I do I find out if someone else claimed my 3 grandchildren?  How do I amend my 2023 taxes to include them.  Currently I don't have a social security number for my 2 year grandson and wasn't able to claim him on my 2024 taxes.  I hope to have his SS# in a couple months.  How do I amend my 2024 taxes to include him.

[Vanessa A]

If they lived with you for the entire year, and their parent did not, then you would be the only one entitled to claim them. To claim a child as a qualifying child, they must live with your for more than 6 months out of the year.  You would not be able to figure out if someone else claimed them without filing a return.  If it is rejected for duplicate SSN then someone else probably claimed them.  You would need to print and mail your 2023 return anyways, so you would end up getting a letter from the IRS asking for proof that they lived with you and not the other person who claimed them (IF someone else did)

Yes, when you get your 2 year old grandsons SSN you can amend your return to add him as a dependent. 

[CCrain]

What are the instructions to amend my taxes done through Turbotax:

1 - to add my two oldest grandchildren (now age 7 and 5) to my 2022 and 2023 taxes.

2 - to add my grandson to my 2024 taxes when I receive his SS#.

What will the IRS ask for to prove that they lived with me and that I financially provided for them the entire 12 months of each year?

What is the rule if the mother or my son lived with me but did not work or provide anything financially for the 3 children - that I provided financially for all 5 of them?

What are the repercussions if someone else fraudulently claimed them?

[Vanessa A]

Here are the instructions on how to file an amended return. 
 

IF the IRS does come back and ask, you can use school records or doctor records. 

If their parents lived with you and did not make more than $5,050 then you would be able to claim their parents as a Qualifying Relative if you provided over half of their support. 
 

If the parents lived with you, then no one else should have claimed them.  Who do you think would have claimed them?