Claiming children who were in foster care

[DanJohnsonIs]

I seem to be gettifn conflicting information. My understanding was that you could claim a new born for the entire year no matter when they were born. I also thought you couldn't claim a child who didn't live with you for more than half the year. We had children who were in foster care from March 18th 2018 - January 2019. I entered the children who were in foster care into the TurboTax software and said they lived with us for 3 months and that the other parent and I have an agreement and that the children did not pay for more than half their support. According to TurboTax they qualify as my dependant. I am being completely honest when I answer the questions. However I'm reading elsewhere that since they didn't live with us for half the year that we can't claim them which makes sense. It's just that the software is saying otherwise.

[NCperson]

newborn is a dependent for the entire year - you are correct (the other is true too, if a child dies during the year, they are still a dependent for the entire year)

for the foster, you are answering the questions from your viewpoint, meaning, the child is not a foster; they are simply your children.  Who paid over 50% of their support last year? you or someone else?  (if you paid the foster parents, then you did) ,  I plugged the information you provided below into Desktop TT and it denied the dependent, so maybe you are answering one of the questions incorrectly? 

[DanJohnsonIs]

I'll go back through the questions carefully again. I know that I'm anseering from my perspective. Technically the fosters do not support the child as they recieve funds from the state to support foster children so I find it interesting that they can claim them.

As I said though I go through the questions again veru carefully. I do not want to get myself into trouble.

It's interesting that you brought up death. We had a child die from cancer in May of 2017. TT said he was not a dependant.

[NCperson]

I am very sorry for your loss; you may want to go back and review how you completed 2017 return and file an amendment as necessary.

[NCperson]

let me go back on my answer as i assumed the parents are still married (and I think on a re-read, I mis-read) .....  are the parents of this child married or not? and if not, is there an agreement in place on who (father or mother) is to claim the child as a dependent? 

[DanJohnsonIs]

We are not married however we do live together. I have the higher AGI and will file as head of household. 

We had a baby in December 2018. I know that I can claim her for all of 2018. The issue is the children we had in foster care. I'm getting conflicting information. From what I gather since certain children didn't live with us for more than 6 months in 2018 and we did not provide more than half of their living expenses then we can not claim them as dependents. However when I answer the questions on TT it's saying they do qualify as dependents. 

here is what i'm doing:

TT Question: What is (child's name) relationship to you

my answer: my child

TT Question: Tell us about (child's name)

My answer: I enter his name, DOB, and check mark that he is my son and then check none of the above for foster child or adopted

TT question: How many month's did (child's name) live when you in 2018

My answer: 3 months. i enter that because he went into foster care on March 18th 2018.

I enter none of these apply for disabled or passed away. I enter that (child's name) did not pay for more than half of his living expenses. I enter that he was not married. I enter that I do not have an agreement with the other parent. We do not have a legal agreement but we live together and I have the higher AGI by far and pay for everything. I enter that (Child's name) did not live with another relative in 2018. I reply no that the child did not make $4,150 in 2018. I reply "no" to "Did you pay for more than half of the child's living expenses in 2018. 

and the results are "Good news! the child qualifies as your dependent" 

under Explainwhy it says that I get to claim the child due to my agreement with the other parent despite me saying that we do not have a agreement.

What am I missing?

[NCperson]

what version of turbo tax are you using (online or desktop, etc)? I punched all your responses into desktop version and the child is not a dependent  if desktop , are you up to date on weekly version updates?

[DanJohnsonIs]

I'm using the Android app and the website through a browser. I answered the questions exactly asnposted. I really think Intuit needs to take a look at this.

[NCperson]

I punched your responses into the online version and also received the response that the child is not a dependent

[DanJohnsonIs]

Hmm that's interesting. Well from other things I've read I know I can't claim the children in question. I'm not sure why TT is saying that I can. I'll just remove those children and just keep the newborn's information.

I do need to look into filling an amended return for last year regarding my son that died.

[NCperson]

suggest using the online version (and not the app) and see what occurs