Vanessa A
Expert Alumni

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

It depends. 

 

How old is she?  Does she have income? Is she going to file a joint return with her husband?

 

In order to claim her as a dependent, she would either need to fit the criteria to be a Qualifying Child or Qualifying Relative.

 

To claim someone as a Qualifying Relative, they must be:

  • Your child ( including step children, adoptive children and foster children) or a descendent of them
  • Your sibling (including half siblings) or a child of your sibling or a sibling-in-law
  • Your parent or grandparents, including step parents and in laws
  • Any other person that lived with you for the entire tax year
  • Not a qualifying child of another taxpayer
  • Someone that you provided over half of their support for during the tax year
  • Has less than $5,050 in income (not counting social security)

The following criteria must be met to claim someone as a qualifying child:

  • Your child (including adopted and foster children), your sibling, or a descendent of any of them.
  • Age 18 or younger at the end of the tax year OR under 24 (and younger than you and your spouse) if they are a full-time student
  • Lived with you for more than 6 months during the tax year
  • They did not provide more than half of their own support (social security does not count)
  • They did not file a joint return, unless it was to claim a refund
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