You can continue to claim your children for as long as they meet the qualifications below.
To claim an exemption
for your child, you must be able to answer "yes" to all of the
following questions.
- Are they
related to you? The
child can be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child,
brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister,
adopted child or an offspring of any of them.
- Do they meet the age
requirement? Your child must be under age 19 or, if a full-time
student, under age 24. There is no age limit if your child is permanently
and totally disabled.
- Do they live
with you? Your
child must live with you for more than half the year, but several
exceptions apply.
- Do you financially support
them? Your child may have a job, but that job cannot provide more
than half of her support.
- Are
you the only person claiming them? This requirement commonly
applies to children of divorced parents. Here you must use the “tie
breaker rules,” which are found in IRS Publication 501. These rules
establish income, parentage and residency requirements for claiming a
child.
Further tests for all dependents:
- Are they a
citizen or resident? The person must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S.
national, a U.S. resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico. Many people
wonder if they can claim a foreign-exchange student who temporarily lives
with them. The answer is maybe, but only if they meet this requirement.
- Are you the
only person claiming them as a dependent? You can’t claim someone who
takes a personal exemption for himself or claims another dependent on his
own tax form.
- Are they
filing a joint return? You cannot claim someone who is married and
files a joint tax return. Say you support your married teenaged son: If he
files a joint return with his spouse, you can’t claim him as a dependent.
TurboTax will ask you simple,
plain-English questions about your family and will determine for you who
qualifies as a dependent on your tax return, so you can be sure you’re
getting the biggest refund you deserve.
