Tax Year Prior to 2020: Can i claim my grandchildren if i have legal guardianship

[JoannaT]

Grandchildren can be a "Qualifying Child" for tax purposes. What matters is where did the child live.

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
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.
   

[Phillip1]

Further, if the parents also lived with the children for more than half of the year, they will be entitled to claim the children under the tie-breaker rules. See below:

Tiebreaker rules . To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these six tax benefits, the following tiebreaker rules apply.

• If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
• If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents.
• If the parents don't file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.
• If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
• If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child. If the child's parents file a joint return with each other, this rule can be applied by dividing the parents' combined AGI equally between the parents. See Example 6.

 Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child.

[Sofiemarie72]

I have permanent custody of my 4 grandsons by the courts. I pay 100% for them. The parents didn’t have them for no days of the year. Do I need to show any proof of court documents to the courts? Can I claim the? My account shows accepted by the IRS

[WKins2]

It sounds like you prepared your return correctly, claiming the grandchildren . 

Then there is nothing else you need to do at the moment. If you return was accepted, check the status of your refund (if you are due for one): https://www.irs.gov/refunds

If the IRS needs anymore documentation or information from you, they will notify you in writing. 

[Kclick]

Can I or not?

[JohnB5677]

Yes you can if they meet this criteria:

• They are not claimed as a dependent by anyone else.
• They are US citizens.
• They live with you? Your grandchildren must live at your residence all year.
• They make less than $4,400 in 2022? 
• You financially support them? You must provide more than half of your relative’s total support each year.

[Hal_Al]

Q. Can I claim my grandchildren if I have legal guardianship? Can I or not?

A. No. Having "legal guardianship" is not enough. 

But, you haven't provided enough information to answer the  question of whether you can claim them.  You have to meet all the rules.  Legal guardianship is not a rule.  Being a close relative (i.e. grandparent) is a qualifying rule.  But there's still more 

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.

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