Grandchildren can be a "Qualifying Child" for tax purposes. What matters is where did the child live.
A child closely related to a taxpayer can be a “Qualifying Child (QC)”
dependent, regardless of the
child's income, if:
- 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
- He did not provide more than 1/2 his own
support
-
He lived with the relative (including temporary
absences) for more than half the year
- He is younger than the relative (not applicable
for a disabled child)
- If the
child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you
must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child (this
essentially means that you have the parent’s permission to claim the child, if the child also lived with the parent more than
half the year)
- If the parents of a child
can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the child, no
one else can claim the child as a qualifying child unless that person's
adjusted gross income (AGI) is higher than the highest AGI of any of the
child's parents who can claim the child.
