grandchild placed with us by court

[satelliteragtop]

Our 10 yr old autistic granddaughter was placed with us on 03/03/2021 and is still living in our home. Her father is deceased and her mother doesn't contribute anything to raising her. She gets a monthly SSI payment of $526 which we use to pay for her living expenses. When I put her in as a dependent it asks if we pay for more than half of her living expenses. We use that to pay for some of her expenses (clothing, meals out, 1/3 of grocery bills, ......) but we don't "charge" her for a third of our mortgage or all the utilities and those kind of things and we still buy her things as her grandparents so I really don't know if what we take from her account is half or not. We never empty her account, we take money out because if her account reaches $2,000 the SSI will stop and we don't want that to happen so it will available to her mother when they get back together. 

So not knowing if we pay more than 50% of her expenses, should I just forget claiming her? 

Any help is really appreciated.

Ed

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

You do not have to enter anything about the Social Security your grandchild is receiving.  Someday if she has any other income from another source then she can file a return and will have to include the SS on her own return.   You can claim your grandchild as a dependent and receive the child-related credits.

To claim a grandchild as your dependent

When you enter the child’s name in Personal Info, you will be asked “What’s your relationship to  [child’s name]?”  

           Choose “another person”

            a drop down menu will appear that lets you choose grandchild