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geppelej
New Member

We have (2) children over the age of 18 serving volunteer missions for the LDS Church. They are out of state, but claim our home as residence. How do we claim them?

 
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2 Replies
Melaine
New Member

We have (2) children over the age of 18 serving volunteer missions for the LDS Church. They are out of state, but claim our home as residence. How do we claim them?

Based on what you mentioned in your question, you may not be able to claim them.  There are other factors that will determine this.  Please see the qualifications below taken from Turbotax; Rules For Claiming A Dependent On Your Tax Return.  You can also use the IRS interactive Who Can I Claim As A Dependent site to help you determine if you provide enough support to claim them.

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.
If you can answer yes to all, then you can claim them as dependent on your tax return.


jerrihead
New Member

We have (2) children over the age of 18 serving volunteer missions for the LDS Church. They are out of state, but claim our home as residence. How do we claim them?

These are the requirements for a qualifying child, but they forget to post the qualifications for qualifying relative. 1. Not a Qualifying Child, 2. Relationship (your children qualify), 3. Gross Income (Less than $4,050), 4. Support (You provide more than half their support). The only thing I can see here disqualifying you is the support test. Do the amounts that the church provides to your child qualify as support? If they do then you do not meet the tests. I personally think they do since you take the amounts paid as a charitable contribution. There was a court case in 1990 Davis vs. United States where they got in trouble for claiming they were both supporting their child and also giving to charity with the same dollars.

And so it is not a big surprise when the LDS church changed the missionary age to start at 18, instead of 19. Too bad for daughters though who start at 19.
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