possible niece deduction

[tellis61]

Our nephew (35) and his daughter (7) lives with us for the past 1-1/2 years. They do not pay rent, but he, however, filed with her as a dependent. Can I deduct either of them on our taxes?

[ThomasM125]

If the individuals qualify as your dependent, then you are entitled to claim them as such. The key condition here would be if you furnish over half of their support, and if they earn less than $4,200 (If age 19 or over). They would qualify based on the familial circumstances since they are either siblings or descendants of your sibling.

However, since your nephew already claimed the child as his dependent, you would have to mail your tax return in to do the same. If you to that, your claim will be denied and your tax refund or amount due will be adjusted. You will then have to protest that adjustment to have the matter investigated by the IRS to determine who is allowed the dependent.

It would be best if you can get your nephew to amend his return to remove the dependent claim if he is in error.

I suggest you enter the individuals into your tax return in TurboTax  and answer the questions to see if he or she qualifies as your dependent.

[Hal_Al]

No,  because he already has. A person can only be claimed once.

If your nephew has income of over $4200, he cannot be claimed by anyone else, regardless of the amount of support you provided.

The child is another story.  A child can be the “qualifying child” dependent of any close (grand niece counts) relative in the household. Either you or the father can claim the child, but not both.  If you can't agree, on who will claim her, then the parent has first choice.  There is an additional rule for the situation: the non parent (you) must have a higher income than the parent, to do this.

It may be worthwhile to prepare returns both ways and compare.  This tool may be useful: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1.   He can still file an amended return to allow you to claim the child.