Thank you for participating in this event.
The child should meet the qualifications to be your dependent in 2022 for you to be able to claim child tax credit. $1,400 per child is the maximum allowable refund for individuals with no tax liability.
Following are the qualification for you to be able to claim your child as a dependent being a single parent:
-
The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
-
The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly), (b) under age 24 at the end of the year, a student, and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly), or (c) any age if permanently and totally disabled.
-
The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year.2
-
The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.
-
The child must not be filing a joint return for the year (unless that joint return is filed only to claim a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax paid).
Another important consideration is if your are living with your parent/parents who provides more than half the support for your child then they may be eligible to claim the child as a dependent on their return. Here are some tie breaker rules in that determine who gets to claim the child:
-
If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
-
If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents.
-
If the parents don't file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.
-
If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
-
If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child.
The IRS Pub 501 has many helpful examples which further explain if your can claim your child as a dependent on your tax return.
Publication 501 (2021), Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information
