Q. I had my kids for 5 1/2 months and the grandparents claimed them for the year. I also paid for child care well over 100 % of their need to support them. I was just in the middle of moving. Can they claim them ?
The living situation is not clear. The kids are the qualifying child of the relative that they lived with for more than half the year. If they lived more than half the year with more than one relative then "tie breaker" rules kick in.
.A child closely related to a taxpayer can be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of the child's income, if:
- He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
- He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support
- He lived with the relative (including temporary absences) for more than half the year
- He is younger than the relative (not applicable for a disabled child)
- If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child (this essentially means that you have the parent’s permission to claim the child, if the child also lived with the parent more than half the year)
- If the parents of a child can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the child, no one else can claim the child as a qualifying child unless that person's adjusted gross income (AGI) is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child.
