Child Tax Credit

[macforchrist]

Our son turned 18 in March 2024 but still lives at home full time without work for baseball training. Can we claim him and how to do that.

[K M W]

To claim a person as a dependent they must meet either the Qualifying Child Rules or the Qualifying Relative Rules. The Qualifying Child Rules are as follows:

1. Relationship Test: The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, or stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
2. Age Test: The child must be
   • under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly); or
   • under age 24 at the end of the year, a student, and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly); or
   • any age if permanently and totally disabled.
3. Residency Test: The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year.
4. Support Test: The child must not have provided more than half of the child’s own support
   for the year.
5. Joint Return Test: 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).

Based on the information you provided, it would seem he meets all of these tests for 2024 - he is your son, he lives with you all year, he will be under the age of 19 at the end of the year, and he does not currently work so he does not pay over half of his support (unless he provides his own support via savings or loans).

To claim him you would simply put his information on your tax return as a dependent.

NOTE: when you get to tax year 2025, your situation will be different - as he will be age 19 next year, so he will not meet the rule of "under age 19" on the 2025 tax return.  He can still meet these rules if he is a full-time student for at least five months in 2025 (in that situation, the age test increases to under age 24).

Assuming, however, he no longer meets the age test to be a Qualifying Child for tax year 2025, he may still be considered your dependent under the Qualifying Relative rules, so you may want to look at those next year.  For reference, all the information about claiming dependents can be found in IRS Publication 501, located at this link: IRS Publication 501