Dependent fraud

[Lauracrtate]

I adopted 2 children last year. When I went to file my taxes was rejected due to already been claimed under their old names. What forms do I need to get this corrected 

[ColeenD3]

You would just have to mail in your return. The IRS will determine between the two taxpayers that claimed the children, who have the right to do so. This will take some time. In the meantime, get as much documentation as you can since they may require proof that they lived with you. School and doctor records, lease contracts with their names, and testimony from church officials are good.

Qualifying child

In addition to the qualifications above, to claim an exemption for your child, you must be able to answer "yes" to all of the following questions.

• Are they related to you? The child can be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, stepbrother, stepsister, adopted child or an offspring of any of them.
• Do they meet the age requirement? Your child must be under age 19 or, if a full-time student, under age 24. There is no age limit if your child is permanently and totally disabled.
• Do they live with you? Your child must live with you for more than half the year, but several exceptions apply.
• Do you financially support them? Your child may have a job, but that job cannot provide more than half of her support.
• Are you the only person claiming them? This requirement commonly applies to children of divorced parents. Here you must use the “tie-breaker rules,” which are found in IRS Publication 501. These rules establish income, parentage, and residency requirements for claiming a child.

[ColeenD3]

What was the status of the children before adoption? Were they with a foster family that also had a claim? You might also include the adoption papers in your mail-in return.

There are tie-breaker rules that apply.

Tiebreaker rules.   To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim the six tax benefits just listed, the following tiebreaker rules apply.

• If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
• If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents.
• If the parents don't file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.
• If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
• If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child. If the child's parents file a joint return with each other, this rule can be applied by treating the parents' total AGI as divided evenly between them.