Hal_Al
Level 15

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Maybe.

A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled

2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Welfare** is considered third party support and not as support provided by the child.

3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

 So, it doesn't matter how much he earned. What matters is how much he spent on support. Money he put into savings does not count as support he spent on him self.

The support value of the home, provided by the parent, is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants. The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

**Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from the Social Security Administration (SSA) is considered welfare.  On the other hand, Social security disability income (SSDI) is consider as his money, for the support test. If he receives a form SSA-1099, he has SSDI, not SSI