Confused about line 5 on IRS Worksheet 2 Worksheet for Determining Support (Child)

[tbduvall]

I am at #5 on the worksheet.

Funds Belonging to the Person You Supported
1.	Enter the total funds belonging to the person you supported, including income received (taxable and nontaxable) and amounts borrowed during the year, plus the amount in savings and other accounts at the beginning of the year. Don't include funds provided by the state; include those amounts on line 23 instead	1.	_____
2.	Enter the amount on line 1 that was used for the person's support	2.	_____
3.	Enter the amount on line 1 that was used for other purposes	3.	_____
4.	Enter the total amount in the person's savings and other accounts at the end of the year	4.	_____
5.	Add lines 2 through 4. (This amount should equal line 1.)	5.

Line 1 is income + bank account balances at the beginning of the year

Line 2 is amount from line 1 used for their support

Line 3 is amount from line 1 used for other purposes

Line 4 is amount from bank account balances at the end of the year

Line 5 says that lines 2-4 should equal line 1.  That can't possibly ever be true.  Bank balances at the beginning of the year are never the same as the ones at the end of the year.  I am confused.

[tbduvall]

I'm sorry, did I miss an answer?

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

Sorry but it does make perfect sense and has for decades ...  it is like balancing a checkbook.  Now if the funds used for support was never paid from that bank account it would not match so review line 2 again. Part of line 1 includes all bank accounts which includes what may have been put in  savings.

Line 1 is income + bank account balances at the beginning of the year  income $500 + bank bal BOY $500 = $1000

Line 2 is amount from line 1 used for their support  $100

Line 3 is amount from line 1 used for other purposes  $200

Line 4 is amount from bank account balances at the end of the year  $700

Line 5 says that lines 2-4 should equal line 1.   100+200+700=1000

[marquelm]

The original questioner pointed out that savings account balances at the end of the year will always be different than the end of the year. And your response was that beginning to end should still add up in Question 5 (apparently by recording the difference between the start and the end of year values as the answer to Question 3).

First of all, I can't find any information that describes what the heck Question 3 is actually supposed to represent.

Secondly, I can't find any information that describes whether Question 1 does or does not actually want all manner of savings and investments included (e.g. IRAs, 529 accounts, bank savings/checking, brokerage accounts, trusts, etc.). But assuming they do, virtually every one of them will be earning interest, dividends, capital appreciation and otherwise changing in "value" in ways that don't obviously correspond to Question 3 "amount on line 1 that was used for other purposes". What does "other purposes" even mean? Is that some inane way of including interest, dividends, capital appreciation, and so on from the aforementioned accounts?

[ThomasM125]

"Income" would include interest earned on the bank account balance. So, if you started with a sum of money in the bank and added income to it and then spent some of it on support and some of it for other purposes, the balance in the account at end of year would be the beginning balance plus the income, less the amounts spent.  That is all the worksheet is really saying.

@marquelm