My child or another person. My wife's granddaughter has lived with us for 10 years. We have been raising her since she was 7 years old.

[Hedied4oursins]

Can I claim my wife's granddaughter since she lives with us and we are her sole support for the past 10 years?

[xmasbaby0]

If your grandchild turned 17 in 2025 you no longer get the child tax credit for her; you can get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents.

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/does-my-childdependent-qualify-for-the-child-tax-credit-or-the-credit-f...

[guywong]

Yes you can claim her as your dependent on your 1040 as long as you and your wife file a joint tax return, she doesn't file a joint return with her spouse and you and your wife provide more than 50% of her support.  Here are the 5 tests on dependents:

Key Tests to Claim a Dependent

1. Qualifying Child Tests: To claim a qualifying child as a dependent, the following tests must be met:

• Relationship: The child must be your biological child, stepchild, adopted child, sibling, or a desce...
• Age: The child must be under 19 at the end of the year, or under 24 if a full-time student. 
• Residency: The child must live with you for more than half the year, with some exceptions for tempor...
• Support: You must provide more than half of the child's total support during the year. 
• Joint Return: The child cannot file a joint return unless it is solely to claim a refund of withheld...

You may even file amended tax returns for 2022, 2023, and 2024 and claim her as your dependent as long as you meet the tests above.  However, you need to hurry for the 2022 amended tax return as the 3-year statute of limitation will run out soon.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

If the child's parent(s) also live with you, the answer may be a little different.  See #5 & 6:

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 (if under 17). 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 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 (under 17 to qualify for the child tax credit)
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. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child (this essentially means that you have the parent’s permission to claim the child, if the child also lived with the parent more than half the year)
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...