The parents of the child are not required to provide more than half of the child's support in order to claim the child as long as the child does not provide more than half their own support.
If the child lived with a parent for more than 1/2 the year they can claim the child. The criteria for you to claim a qualifying relative states "The person cannot be the qualifying child of anyone else." That's why you need to get the "OK" from the parent(s) to claim because they almost always can claim just because they are the parents.
Here are criteria for claiming a qualifying child.
-
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.
-
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).
**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
