topic Claiming dependents in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Claiming dependents

Sg1969 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:11:49 GMT

My Daughter & I have guardian ship on my 3 nieces & nephew, she has been claiming them for the past 3 years, I have my own place so we both care for them half & half threw out the year. What is required for me to claim them for year of 2022?

I also need to file for 2020 & 2021, would like to set an appt. With someone who can file paperwork correctly & then with all the new credits available.

Re: Claiming dependents

xmasbaby0 — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:05:25 GMT

TurboTax cannot assist you with 2020 or 2021 beyond helping with questions you may want to post here in the user forum. There are no brick and mortar locations for TurboTax where you can make an appointment and take in your stuff. If you want that sort of help you need to seek it locally.

It is not clear how you and your daughter are sharing guardianship, and you have not really explained which of you the children lived with----or do all of you live together? ("I have my own place..")

And what "past 3 years" did your daughter claim the children?

Provide some details ....and perhaps someone here can help guide you. You have not mentioned whether you or your daughter worked and earned income, so that is a detail we also need to know. And....what are the ages of the children as of the end of 2022?

Re: Claiming dependents

Hal_Al — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:21:17 GMT

Your nieces & nephew would only be your daughter's first cousins. First cousins are not closely related enough for the children to be "Qualifying Child" dependents. However if they have been placed, with her, as "foster children", by a court or government agency, a foster child is considered closely related.

The closely related taxpayer that gets to claim the child is the one the child lived with most of the year. If you all live together, you may decide between you who will claim the child. If you can't agree, it's the taxpayer with the higher income (AGI).

There is no such thing as half & half custody.

Re: Claiming dependents

SantinoD — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:32:27 GMT

Take a look below on how they can qualify:

Qualifying relative

They don't have to be related to you (despite the name).
They aren't claimed as a dependent by someone else.
They're a U.S. citizen, resident alien, national, or a Canadian or Mexican resident.
They aren’t filing a joint return with their spouse.
They lived with you the entire year (exceptions apply).
They made less than $4,400 in 2022.
You provided more than half of their financial support.

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.

@xmasbaby0 is correct, we do need more information to determine if they qualify as a dependent. But since they are not your children, they would need to pass the Qualifying relative test.

Re: Claiming dependents

Hal_Al — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:38:20 GMT

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("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. The support test, for a QC, is only that the child didn't provide more than half his own support. The support test for a Qualifying Relative is that the taxpayer provided more than half the relative's support.

A child closely related (niece/nephew & foster child count; cousin does not) 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.

See full dependent rules at: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Family/Rules-for-Claiming-a-Dependent-on-Your-Tax-Return/INF12139.html