I had two foster children from January 1, 2024 to June 18, 2024. Can I claim them on my taxes?

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Q. I had two foster children from January 1, 2024 to June 18, 2024. Can I claim them on my taxes?

A. No.

Although a  legally placed foster child is considered related for tax purposes, they did not live with you long enough to qualify as "qualifying child" dependents.

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit. They are interrelated but the rules are different for each.

The support test is different for each type. The support test, for a QC, is only that the child didn't provide more than half his own support. The support test for a Qualifying Relative is that the taxpayer provided more than half the relative's support.

.A child closely related (foster child counts) to a taxpayer can be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of the child's income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or  is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support
3. He lived with the relative (including temporary absences) for more than half the year
4. He is younger than the relative (not applicable for a disabled child)
5. He must not be the qualifying child of another person
6. If the parents of a child can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the child, no one else can claim the child as a qualifying child unless that person's adjusted gross income (AGI) is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child.

See full dependent rules at: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Family/Rules-for-Claiming-a-Dependent-on-Your-Tax-Ret...

There might be a chance that the children still qualify as "qualifying relative" dependents, if you provided more than half their support for the year.  But, that's unlikely. Even if they did, you could not get the Child Tax Credit and Earned income credit.