I became a legal guardian for my niece (my older sister's daughter) in July but she has been living with me since August of 2023 full time and I have been caring for her since she arrived. She is an autistic 23 year old. She was declared incapacitated by the family court in Salt Lake City and I was given full unrestricted guardianship by the court. She worked for DI for 12 hours a week at $10 an hour to get job and occupational training by the church. She ended up earning around $6,000 for the entire year which is not near enough to support herself with like rent, utilities, food and medical/dental care all of which I provided for her. I just filed my taxes and decided not to claim her because of her small income and that it would cause problems either in possibly disqualifying her as a dependent or forcing me to prove I provided more than half of her support for the year which I did and way beyond. What are the IRS rules in this case and can I claim her or not?
