Adult Dependent Children

[msapiseno]

I have 3 adult children that either live with me currently or did for more than half of the year.  The oldest is 24 and on Disability.  He lived with me for 9 months and I covered all bills/necessities until he moved out.  My other children are 19 and both work.  Neither has enrolled in college yet but I do provide more than half of their needs.  (They do contribute to the household, just not in amounts that constitute meeting their own needs fully.)  They will file their own taxes. Can any of them be claimed as dependents?

[sdammons]

This is a great question to ask when your children are coming of age and might have tax returns of their own to file.

There are rules that must be met for claiming dependents. These rules are separated into two categories: Rules for Qualifying Child and Rules for Qualifying Relative. 

For Qualifying Child, five tests must be met for a child to be your qualifying child. The five tests are:

1. Relationship,

2. Age,

3. Residency,

4. Support, and

5. Joint return.

The most common rule that prevents dependency is the Age Test. In your case, however, your 24 year old disabled child will meet this test while your 19 year old children who are not in school will not meet this test and will have to be considered under the rules for qualifying relative. 

For Qualifying Relative, four tests must be met for a person to be your qualifying relative. The four tests are:

1. Not a qualifying child test,

2. Member of household or relationship test,

3. Gross income test, and

4. Support test.

The most common rule that prevents dependency is the Gross Income Test. To meet this test, your 19 year old children will have to have gross income under $4300 (TY2021). 

To be sure that all rules are met, see Rules for Claiming a Dependent on Your Tax Return .

Important: In the event you are claiming your child as your dependent and that child is also filing a tax return, be sure that they indicate on their tax return that they can be claimed as a dependent on another tax return.

[msapiseno]

Thank you!

[sdammons]

You are very welcome. I hope this was a helpful response.

[carolineb]

Hello! Claiming dependents when your children are adults can be tricky. Here is a link to a very helpful article about claiming dependents: Rules for Claiming a Dependent on Your Tax Return 

To be considered a qualifying child, your child must be under age 19 or, if a full-time student, under age 24.  In order to be considered a full time student, your child would have had to attend an educational program for at least five months out of the calendar year.

There's no age limit if your child is permanently and totally disabled, but your disabled child must live with you for more than half the year.

A qualifying child can earn an unlimited amount of money and still be claimed as a dependent, so long as the child doesn’t also provide more than half of his or her own support, so if your children are putting the bulk of their earnings into a savings account and you are still paying over half of what it costs to maintain their home, you can still claim your children as dependents. Keep in mind that they will need to file their own dependent tax returns to pay taxes on their earnings.

[SuziM]

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