Q: Do I get an extra exemption for turning age 65?

A: You do not get an additional exemption when you turn 65. You are eligible for a larger standard deduction if you do not itemize your deductions.

Q: Can I claim an exemption for my 52 year old sister who lives with me and my wife? She only collects $650 month in social security.

A: Assuming your sister is a US citizen or US, Mexican or Canadian resident and does not file a joint return with her spouse other than to obtain a full refund, you could claim her as a dependent if you provide over one-half of her total support for the calendar year. Total support includes her share of the entire household expenses, such as lodging, food, utilities, repairs, plus her clothing, medical, dental, recreation, etc. In determining the value of lodging, if you own your home, use its fair rental value, not mortgage interest & taxes.

Whatever is spent from her Social Security benefits toward her own support is considered contributed by her.

Q: Can I still claim an exemption for my wife even though she passed away this year?

A: In the year of death of a spouse you are allowed to continue to file a joint return for that year and claim a personal exemption for both of you.

Q: My husband's brother who is 18 has been living with us since February. We want to claim him on our taxes this year. However he has worked since May full time and has made around $5,500 this year. There is no one else to claim him as a dependent. Has he made too much money for us to claim him as a dependent? Does he have to file a return?

A: You may well be able to claim a dependency exemption for your brother-in-law. He appears to meet the requirements to be your "qualifying child" as defined in the tax rules. Those rules are:

1. Relationship Test: A brother meets this requirement.

2. Age Test: Must be under age 19 at the end of the year or under age 24 and a full-time student or any age if permanently and totally disabled.

3. Residence Test: Must have lived with you for more than half the year.

In addition to the above three rules for a qualifying child, he must not have provided more than half of his own support for the year. He must also be either a US citizen, US national or a resident of the US, Canada or Mexico and have a taxpayer ID number.

As long as you pass these tests and your brother-in-law is your "qualifying child" the amount of his income will not affect your ability to claim him as a dependent.

If he is your dependent, he must file his own return if his unearned income is over $850 or his earned income is over $5150. If he was self-employed, he would have to file if he had at least $400 of self-employment income whether he was your dependent or not. If he is your dependent he can not claim his personal exemption on his tax return.

If he his not your dependent, he would only have to file if his gross income was at least $8450 or $400 of self-employment income. Even if his gross income is lower than the filing threshold, he may want to file to obtain a tax refund of any income tax withheld from his pay.

Q: Can I claim my parents as dependents without any impact on their social security benefits?

A: Social security benefits are not affected by whether your parents claim themselves or whether you claim them as dependents.
For more information on whether your parents are your dependents, please see IRS Pub 501.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/index.html

Q: What do I do if my parents claimed me as an exemption and I also claimed myself? I am a college student.

A: Two exemptions can not be claimed for the same person.

Whether or not you are your parent's dependent is a matter of facts. The definition of who is a dependent can be found in IRS Pub 501 or in the Frequently Asked Questions of this bulletin board.

Once this determination is made, either you or your parents would have to amend the tax return.

Also note that the IRS should notice that the same person has been claimed more than once. The IRS will send a letter of notice to the taxpayer who filed last.

Q: My former spouse and I share physical custody of our 8 year old child. Our child also spends a couple of weeks each year with my parents and his parents such that we both have custody for the same number of days. Which of us is the custodial parent and entitled to all the tax benefits of having a qualifying child?

A: The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child resides for the greater number of nights in the calendar year as long as the child is not emancipated (reached the age of majority) under state law. When a child is in custody of one or both parents for more than half the year and the child spends an equal number of nights with both parents, then the parent with the higher adjusted gross income is considered to be the custodial parent.

Q: My sister fully supports my parents and claims them as her dependents on her tax return. My father died July 2nd. Can my sister still claim my father on her tax return?

A: Yes, she can still take a dependency exemption in the year he died as long as a final tax return using the status of "married joint" is not filed by his surviving spouse other than to obtain a full refund of any income tax that may have been withheld.

Q: How do we claim an exemption for our child born on Dec. 27th when we don't have her social security number?

A: You will not get the benefit of claiming her as a dependent until you have the social security number to be put on the tax return.

You have two options. You could file your income tax return without claiming your daughter as a dependent. After you receive her social security number, you could then amend your return on Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. You have three years from the later of the due date of the return or from the date the return was filed to amend the return to obtain a refund.

The other option is to file a Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. This would give you an additional six months to file your return; by then you should have your daughter's social security number. Please note that any tax owed should be sent with the Form 4868 to avoid interest and penalty charges later.

For forms and instruction go to www.irs.gov and use the search boxes.

Q: I am working and living overseas and recently married a person who is not a US citizen. She and her small child now live with me all year. Can I claim my stepchild as my dependent even though he does not have an SSN or an ITIN?

A: No. You cannot claim anyone on your income tax return without a taxpayer identification number. In addition, even if the child had an ITIN, the child would have to be either a US citizen, US national, US resident alien, or a resident of Canada or Mexico to be claimed as a dependent.

Q: I am 22. I attend college full-time, work and live with my father. Depending on how I view my situation, I believe I can file and claim myself or I may let my father claim me. Is that a correct interpretation?

A: You are either your father's dependent or you are self-supporting and not his dependent. This is a matter of facts and circumstances. How you view the situation is not relevant.

As you are under age 24, you are your father's qualifying child if you live with him for more than six months and you are not self-supporting. You would be self-supporting if you provided more than half of your own total support. Total support includes the fair market value of any lodging provided to you, utilities, repairs to the household, food, clothing, education, medical, dental, travel and recreation expenses. Only the person who QUALIFIES to claim you can do so. If you are self-supporting, then your father may not claim you.

Q: My daughter and her 10 year old child live with me all year. I have been claiming my daughter as a qualifying relative and my grandchild as a qualifying child on my taxes. My daughter recently started to receive child support from the child's father. He claims he now has the right to claim the child as a dependent as he provides the support.
Who can claim the dependency exemption for the child?

A: Your grandchild is your qualifying child and is also the qualifying child of his parent (your daughter). This makes your daughter the custodial parent. As such, unless your daughter formally releases the dependency exemption to the noncustodial parent (your grandchild's father), you and your daughter can agree that you will claim the dependency exemption. The amount of child support paid by the child's father is not relevant.

Q: Is there anyway to claim my girlfriend's two infant children (ages 5 and 7) as my dependents? She and her two children lived with me all year in my home and I am providing all of their support. I am not their father. She is a single parent and we have no idea where the childrens' father is living.

A: In order for the two children who are unrelated to you, to be your dependent, they would have to meet the tests to be your qualifying relatives. One of these tests is that they can not be the qualifying children of another taxpayer. Based on the facts you present, the two children would normally be the qualifying children of their mother as they meet the age requirement and they have lived with her for more than six months. However, if their mother does not have a tax filing requirement and she does not file a tax return other than to obtain a full refund of any income tax withheld, then the two children would not be considered qualifying children of another taxpayer. Under these conditions they would be your dependents if you met all the tests for having a qualifying relative. These tests are explained in IRS Pub 501 available at:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

Also note that the same qualifying relative rules would be applicable to your live-in girlfriend as long as your living arrangement is not in violation of state law.

Q: My son is 37 years old and he lives with me. Last year, he was laid off from work and he only made $6400. I provide just about all his support. May I claim an exemption for him?

A: Unfortunately, you can not claim a dependency exemption for your son because his taxable gross income for the year was at least equal to the amount of one personal exemption. If you itemize your deductions, you may be able to include any medical expense you incurred on his behalf if you provided more than half of his total support for the year. See IRS Pub 502 (Medical & Dental Expenses) for information on claiming medical deductions for a dependent who does not meet all the dependency rules to claim an exemption.

Q: I am a single parent with a 10 year old qualifying child. We both live with my mother in her home. We share the expenses. Who can claim my child as a dependent?

A: The following represents the tax law prior to tax year 2009. See the end for tax tears starting in 2009.

If the child is residing in the same household as the mother and grandmother then the child is the qualifying child of two or more taxpayers. The mother and grandmother can agree among themselves who will take the exemption. If they can't agree, the tie breaking rule states that the exemption goes to the parent.

Please note that once they make the decision as to who gets the exemption, it is that taxpayer who is the only one who can treat that child as a qualifying child for all the other tax benefits such as the child tax credit, earned income credit, child and dependent care credit and filing as head of household.

2009: If no parent of a qualifying child claims the child, and another individual is eligible to the claim the child, that individual must have a higher AGI than the parent. There is no change to the tie-breaking rule stated above.

Q: My ex-spouse is claiming the dependency exemption for our son even though our divorce agreement names me as the custodial parent. He claims that the tax law was changed in 2005 and that because he had physical custody of our son for the greater part of the year, he is the custodial parent and gets the exemption. Could this be true?

A: Tax law was changed relating to the definition of custodial parent for those parents who are divorced, separated or never married. Your former spouse is correct that the parent who has physical custody of the child for the greater part of the year is the custodial parent as long as the child is not emancipated under state law. If the couple separated during the year, the custodial parent is the one who had custody for the greater part of the rest of the year. Under these circumstances, the child in question would be a qualifying child for the custodial parent if the child lived with that parent for more than half the year and the child did not provide more than half of his/her own support.

There is an exception that is still available to the noncustodial parent for any tax year beginning before July 2, 2008. If, for a tax year that started before July 2, 2008, the divorce decree or separation agreement unconditionally states that one parent is entitled to the dependency exemption and the agreement specifically identifies the child, the parent who gets the exemption, the year or years that this release will apply and the other parent has signed the agreement (a lawyer's signature is not sufficient), then that taxpayer is entitled to the exemption regardless of who is the custodial parent. For tax years starting after July 2, 2008, the noncustodial parent can only claim the exemption for a child if the custodial parent formally releases that exemption via IRS Form 8332 or a signed written statement that conforms to the language in Form 8332.

Please note that if you are a calendar year based taxpayer, 2008 still follows the old rule. Starting in 2009, the custodial parent would have to formally release the exemption.