Who Is Your Qualifying Child for Income Tax Benefits?

For income tax purposes, your qualifying child is not only the one you gave birth. You may be able to claim your brother as your qualifying child for your income tax benefits. According to the Federal Income Tax (2009), your qualifying child is a person who meets all of the following: relationship, age, residency, support, joint return, special test for qualifying child of more than one person. Therefore check these requirements and file accordingly. You may qualify for and receive more money refund than your income tax withheld.

Your qualifying child is your son, daughter, step child, foster child, grandchild, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or your niece or nephew, adopted child, a child placed with you for legal adoption, a foster child by order of any court.

Your qualifying child is the person who lived with you, under 19 at the end of the year, and younger than you or your spouse if you file joint return.

Your qualifying child is the person who lived with you, a full-time student under age 24 at the end of the year, and younger than you or your spouse if you file joint return. For example, your able, unmarried, full-time student, 22 years old brother, lives with you and your 24 years old spouse.

Your qualifying child is the person who lived with you, permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year.

Your qualifying child is the person who lived with you more than half of the year; was born, died, or kidnapped during the year; lives with your divorced or separated spouse. However, an emancipated child is considered not living with either parent under state law.

Your qualifying child earned less than half of his or her support for the year. A scholarship is not used in calculating his or her own support for full-time student. A full-time student at college, trade, technical school, or in training on a farm is a qualifying child to the person who gave more than his or her support.

Your qualifying child does not file a joint return with his or her spouse for the year except that they only file joint return to claim a refund of their income tax withheld.

Your qualifying child may qualify for more than one person for the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests . However, only one person can claim him or her as qualifying child. That person will be able to claim all of the tax benefits, if the person is eligible to do so.

You also can claim your qualifying relative as dependent if the person of any age, lived with you all year, earned less than $3650, and you paid for more than half of the person's support.

You can claim a person as your qualifying child if only you are the child’s parent; you have higher adjusted gross income (AGI), if all other conditions are equaled; you have higher AGI and neither of you can claim him or her because of other tests.

Those are all of the requirements for a qualifying child. Now go ahead and make these tests to see if you can claim any relatives that lived with you last year as your qualifying child. You should make these claims or you are paying too much for your income taxes.

However, if more than one of you can claim your child as a qualifying child according to these rules, you and the other persons can choose which of you claim him or her as qualifying child.

Disclaimer: This tax information is found in the IRS publication, provided as a public service, and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.