Question

Tax Question:

Your new client Sandy came to your office for her taxes. During the initial interview, she mentioned that a few years back, she adopted her older brother as her son. She said her family attorney had advised her to do so and the adoption was solely for immigration purposes only. She has been so busy lately that she did not have time to "un"- adopt her brother. Sandy was wondering if she could claim her brother as her dependent child since he had no income.

How should you advise Sandy?

Answer 1

In the given case whether Sandy can claim her brother as her dependent child depends upon the following requirements:

There are 5 requirements to treat a child as dependent for tax purpose:

1. The child must be your son, daughter, step child, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister or a descendant of any of them.

An adopted child is always treated as your own child.

This requirement is fulfilled by Sandy.

2. The child must be under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you ; or younger than 24 at the end of the year, a full time student and younger than you; or any age if the child is permanently and totally disabled.

This requirement is not fulfilled by Sandy as it is mentioned that the adopted child is older than her, however it may fulfil the condition if the child is permanently and totally disabled.

3. The child must have live with you for more than half of the tax year.

The question not mentioned anything about this information.

4. The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own income for the year.

This condition is not fulfilled as the question mentioned the person has no income..

5. To be qualifying child who can be claimed as a tax dependent, the youngster must not file a joint return for the year unless that return is filed only as a claim for refund.

As the point no.-4 is not applicable hence this point has no relevancy.

So, one can take above points in consideration while claiming a child as dependent for tax purpose...