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Even without taxable income if the grandchildren are your dependents you may get the child tax credit and the 3rd stimulus by filing a 2021 tax return. Are the children under the age of 18? Claim them as dependents on your 2021 tax return. The child tax credit will show up on line 28. If you did not yet receive the stimulus checks for claiming them you can use the recovery rebate credit in Federal Review to get the $1400 per person amount and it will show up on line 30.
WHO CAN I CLAIM AS A DEPENDENT?
You can claim a child, relative, friend, or fiancé (etc.) as a dependent on your 2021 taxes as long as they meet the following requirements:
Qualifying child
Qualifying relative
When you add someone as a dependent, we'll ask a series of questions to make sure you can claim them. There may be other tax benefits you can get when you claim a dependent.
Do you have any other income of any type? Do the children's parents live with you?
There are two more rules for a "Qualifying Child" (QC) dependent:
Note the difference in the support test rule for a QC and a QR. If the children don't live with you, it's unlikely that you provide more than half their support, if your only income is non taxable SS.
The money you hear about people getting for just filing a tax return claiming kids requires them to have some earned income (wages or self employment). Without earned income, they are not eligible for the "refundable" Earned Income Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit. Both credits are calculated on the amount of earned income you have. No earned income means no tax benefit. A small amount of earned income means a small refund. The child tax credit does not "kick in" unless you have at least $2500 of earned income. That earned income rule was not fully true for 2021, because of the Covid rules. Stimulus/recovery rebate money was available for kids and the earned income rule for the (additional) child tax credit was suspended for 2021 (but not 2020).
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