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The question you are seeing about 'how long did she live with you?' relates to the Earned Income Credit, which only the custodial parent can qualify for. The custodial parent is generally the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. Total your number of overnights with your daughter and enter the appropriate number of months on this question.
However, even if you are not considered the custodial parent for tax purposes, you can still claim her as a qualifying child dependent for the child tax credit or credit for other dependents.
Click the link for more detailed info on Splitting Child Deductions for Divorced or Separated Parents and don't worry, TurboTax will take care of Form 8332 for you.
Who can claim the exemption and credits depends on who is the custodial parent. (By the IRS definition of custodial parent for tax purposes - this is not the same as the custody that a court might grant.).
The test that the IRS uses to determine the custodial parent is where the child lived for more than 1/2 (or greater part) of the year. The IRS will go so far as to require counting the nights spend in each household - that person is the custodial parent for tax purposes (if exactly equal and more than 183 days - The custodial parent is the parent with the highest AGI, if less than 183 days then neither parent has custody). That can usually only occur if both parents lived with the child at the same time. And yes they are that picky.
The custodial parent may claim everything child related UNLESS they waive the dependency exemption to the non custodial parent via a form 8332.... in that case the child may be used on 2 separate returns but only in the following way :
Only the Custodial parent can claim: (Child would be listed as non-dependent EIC & CC only)
-Head of Household
-Earned Income Credit
-Child Care Credit
The non custodial parent can only claim: (Child would be listed as dependent)
-The Exemption
- The Child Tax Credit
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