Can I claim my brother if he lives with me and I pay more than half of his living expenses? And also if I claim him will he have to note hat on his taxes?

[jessica-eiler87]

Can I claim my brother if he lives with me and I pay more than half of his living expenses? And also if I claim him will he have to note that on his taxes?

[DoninGA]

Assuming that your brother is over the age of 18 and not a full time student under the age of 24, then if he has gross income of $4,050 or more for 2016 you cannot claim him as a dependent on your tax return.  If he has less income than $4,050 and you do claim him as a dependent under the Qualifying Relative rules, then if he files a tax return he would have to indicate on his tax return that he can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's tax return.

To be a Qualifying Relative -

1. The person cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. A child is not the qualifying child of any other taxpayer if the child's parent (or any other person for whom the child is defined as a qualifying child) is not required to file an income tax return or files an income tax return only to get a refund on income tax withheld.

2. The person either (a) must be related to you or (b) must live with you all year as a member of your household. 

3. The person's gross income for the year must be less than $4,050 (social security does not count) in 2016

4. You must provide more than half of the person's total support for the year.

5. The person must be a U.S. citizen or a U.S., Canada, or Mexico resident for some part of the year.

6. The person must not file a joint return with their spouse.

[Hal_Al]

Yes, he will have to note, on his taxes, that he is being claimed by someone else.
There is a rule that says IF somebody else CAN claim him as a dependent, he is not allowed to claim his own exemption. If he has sufficient income (usually more than $6300), he can & should still file taxes; he just doesn’t get his own $4050 exemption (deduction). In TurboTax, he indicates that somebody else can claim him as a dependent, at the personal information section.  
Even if he had less, he is allowed to file if he needs to get back income tax withholding. He cannot get back social security or Medicare tax withholding.

[Hal_Al]

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, a relationship test and a residence test. Only a QC qualifies the taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit.

A child closely related to a taxpayer can be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of the child's income, if:

1.                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

2.                He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support

3.                He lived with the relative (including temporary absences) for more than half the year

4.                He is younger than the relative (not applicable for a disabled child)

5.                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)

6.                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.