Notes – Dependency Worksheet – Tax Year 2022
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Exception to time lived with T/P: If a person was born or died in 2024 and the T/P’s home was this person’s home for the entire time alive during 2024, he or she is considered to have lived all year with the T/P. Temporary absences for school, vacation, medical care, military service, or detention in a juvenile facility count as time lived with the T/P.
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Student is defined as someone enrolled full-time during any part of 5 calendar months in 2024 at a school, including a technical, trade or mechanical school, but not an on-the-job training course, correspondence, or Internet school. A full-time on-farm training course given by a school or government agency qualifies.
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Permanently and totally disabled: In 2024, the person couldn’t engage in any substantial gainful activity due to a mental or physical condition that a doctor has determined (a) lasted or can be expected to last continuously for at least a year, or (b) can be expected to lead to death.
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Tie-breaker rules: (If the child is the qualifying child of more than 1 person, only 1 person may claim the child for dependency, child tax credit, Head of Household filing status, credit for child and dependent care and earned income credit.) These rules apply if 2 or more taxpayers may claim an individual and they can’t decide between them who will claim the dependency., Tie-breaking rules are as follows:
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If only one of the persons is the child’s parent, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
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If two of the persons are the child’s parents, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time in 2024. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for 2024.
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If the child could be, but is not, claimed by either parent, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of another person only if that person’s AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any parent of the child
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If the person is married and does not file a joint return, answer “NO.”, If the person is married and files a joint return only as a claim for refund and no tax liability would exist for either spouse if they had filed separate returns, answer “NO.”, If neither exception applies, the dependency is not allowed.
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Rules for Children of Divorced or Separated Parents: A child will be treated as a qualifying child or qualifying relative of his or her noncustodial parent (the parent with whom the child lived for the lesser part of 2024) if all the following apply.
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The parents are divorced, legally separated, separated under a written separation agreement, or always lived apart during the last 6 months of 2024.
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The child received over half of his or her support for 2024 from the parents (without regard to the rules on Multiple Support Agreements).
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The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half of 2024.
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The custodial parent signs Form 8332 (or a substantially similar statement) that he or she will not claim the child as a dependent for 2024. Pertinent pages from divorce decree or separation agreement may not be substituted for Form 8332 (or similar statement).
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If the rules above apply and this child would otherwise be the qualifying child of more than one person:
• Only the non-custodial parent can claim the child for purposes of the child tax credits.
• For head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, and the earned income tax credit (EITC), only one person can claim these three benefits. No other person can claim any of these three benefits unless he or she has a different qualifying child.
If more than one person can claim the child as a qualifying child, see Note 4 above.