EITC Tiebreaker

[wlrosenfeld]

According to EITC rules, a child is qualifying for her mother and brother. Her brother has a SSN and is eligible for EITC. Her mom has an ITIN and is not eligible. Her mom's AGI is more than her brother's. Tiebreaker rules for a Qualifying Child of More than One Person assign a child to her parent over other relatives. If parents do not claim her they allow others to claim her only if their AGI is higher than the parent.

Does the tiebreaker apply when she qualifies for more than one eligible person or simply when she qualifies for more than one person? If both conditions must apply then the brother can claim her otherwise no one can.

[Vanessa A]

The tiebreaker rules come in when two people try to claim the same child.  Since the mother cannot legally claim her for the EITC, due to having the ITIN, then there are not two people who could claim her for the EITC so the tiebreaker rules would not apply in this situation.  However, if the mother claims the daughter as a dependent on her return, then the brother could not claim her for the EITC.  

Also, if the mother claims the brother as a dependent on her return, the brother cannot claim the child as a dependent cannot claim another dependent. 

If the family all lives together in the same house and the brother is not paying more than half of the cost to maintain the home, be sure that the brother does not claim head of household as that is one of the criteria to claiming head of household.  

He can still claim the child as a dependent and still claim the EITC, but not Head of Household. 

If the mother had a SSN instead of an ITIN, the tiebreaker rule would apply and the brother could not claim the child since the mothers AGI is higher.