How do I figure out if my granddaughter is a dependent when I help raise her for 4 days every week all through the year?

[shel2beme62]

Her father, my son, is a truck driver so I keep her for him because he has very little home time.

[JohnB5677]

Here is a checklist for determining whether your mom (or other relative) qualifies.

• Do they live with you? Your relative must live at your residence all year or be on the list of “relatives who do not live with you” in Publication 501. About 30 types of relatives are on this list.
• Do they make less than $4,300 in 2020? Your relative cannot have a gross income of more than $4,300 in 2020 and be claimed by you as a dependent.
• Do you financially support them? You must provide more than half of your relative’s total support each year.
• Are you the only person claiming them? This means you can’t claim the same person twice, once as a qualifying relative and again as a qualifying child. It also means you can’t claim a relative—say a cousin—if someone else, such as his parents, also claim him.

Rules for Claiming a Dependent  on your taxes.

[Hal_Al]

The first thing you do is discuss it with your son to be sure he is not going to claim her.  If your granddaughter sleeps at your house more than half the nights in the year, then you can most likely claim her, if the father isn't (although it's questionable whether the father is even allowed to*).

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit. They are interrelated but the rules are different for each.

The support test is different for each type. 

.A child closely related to a taxpayer can be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of the child's 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
3. He lived with the relative (including temporary absences*) for more than half the year
4. He is younger than the relative (not applicable for a disabled child)

Rule 5 & 6 usually apply when the parent, child and grandparent all live in the same home:

5. 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. 

6. 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.

*The time at your home may only be considered a temporary absence from the parent's home.

See full dependent rules at: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Family/Rules-for-Claiming-a-Dependent-on-Your-Tax-Ret...