Question

• Aurora and Oscar separated in 2017 and divorced in October 2019. She earned $40,000 in wages and paid more than half the cost of keeping up her home in 2019.
• Aurora and Oscar have a son, Milo, who is 17 years old and unmarried.
• Aurora signed Form 8332 (Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent) allowing Oscar to claim Milo in 2019.
• Milo is a full-time student working towards a degree in computer information systems. Milo lived on campus during the school year and spent the summer at home with his mother.
• Milo does not a have a felony drug conviction and is not a qualifying child for anyone except Aurora.
• Aurora paid $5,000 of Milo's tuition that was not covered by his scholarship.
• Aurora provided more than half of her son's support and all the cost of his room and board on campus.
• Milo's only income was $3,800 in wages and $400 of dividend income. He had no federal or state tax withholding.
• Aurora and Milo are U.S. citizens and have valid Social Security numbers

Question: Milo is Oscar's qualifying person for which of the following?

a. Head of Household filing status

b. Earned income credit

c. Credit for other dependents

d. Child Tax credit

Answer 1

Milo is Oscar's qualifying person for Credit for other dependents as the remaining options are not applicable for below reasons.

a. Oscar had to pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year, but in this case Aurora paid it so Milo cannot be Qualified person for credit for Qualifying for Head of Household Filing status.

b.For Earned Income credit - any individual can claim depends on the annual income earned for the tax year and the number of qualified dependents that the taxpayer has. but in this case Milo is qualifying child only for Aurora but not Oscar.

d. For Child Tax credit - Milo must have lived with the Oscar who is claiming the tax credit for more than half of the tax year and be claimed as a dependent on the Oscar's return. But in this case Milo didn't lived with oscar fro more than half tax year.