Claiming Your Exemptions For A Qualified Child: Exceptions To The Residency Test

To claim a child as a dependent, the residency test is one critical test that must be satisfied. The general rule is that the child must have lived with you, sharing the same principal place of abode or home, for more than half of the year. There are, however, some very important exceptions to the general rule, and these apply in the following situations:

Temporary absences

If you, or your child, have to be temporarily absent from the home due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, or military service, this is treated as a period of temporary absence. Under this exception, your dependent is considered to have lived with you during the periods of time when either you or your dependent had to be absent from the home, so you will be able to claim the child.

Child born or died during year

If your child was born during the year, or died during the year, he or she is treated as having lived with you for the entire year, if your home was the child’s home the entire time he or she was alive during the year. Consequently, you may be able to claim an exemption for a child who was born alive during the year, even if the child lived only for a moment. State or local law must treat the child as having been born alive. There must be proof of a live birth shown by an official document, such as a birth certificate. You must attach a copy of the child’s birth certificate, death certificate, or hospital records to the return. The child must be your qualifying child or qualifying relative, and all the other tests to claim an exemption for a dependent must be met. You cannot claim an exemption for a stillborn child.

Kidnapped child

If your child was kidnapped, you can treat the child as meeting the residency test, and claim the child. However, both of the following statements must be true: (a) the child is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or the child’s family, and (b) in the year the kidnapping occurred, the child lived with you for more than half of the part of the year before the date of the kidnapping. This treatment applies for all years until the child is returned. However, the last year this treatment can apply is the earlier of: (a) the year there is a determination that the child is dead, or (b) the year the child would have reached age 18.

Children of divorced or separated parents

If you are separated from your spouse, and the child lives with your spouse, that makes you the non-custodial parent. Tax law, however, states that the child can be treated as your qualifying child, if all the following apply:

• You and your spouse are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or legal separation; are separated under a written separation agreement, or you lived apart from your spouse at all times during the last 6 months of the year.
• Your child received over half of his or her support for the year from you and your spouse.
• Your child was in the custody of you or your spouse for more than half of the year.
• The decree of divorce, or separate maintenance, or written separation agreement provides that you, the non-custodial parent can claim the child as a dependent, or your spouse signs a written declaration, such as Form 8332, Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent, stating that he or she will not claim the child as a dependent for that year.

The primary objective of this article is to empower taxpayers to learn to do their own taxes. For more information on how to claim your exemptions, grab yourself a copy of “Doing Your Own Taxes is as Easy as 1, 2, 3,” ($6.98) on TaxConnections.com.

Milton G Boothe is an IRS Enrolled Agent with over twenty years of tax and financial accounting experience, including several years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is also a British certified Chartered Accountant. He is currently employed in private tax practices where he helps people resolve their tax problems, minimize their taxes, and routinely represents the interests of taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service. As an Enrolled Agent (EA) Boothe is a federally-authorized tax practitioner who has technical expertise in the field of taxation and who is empowered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before all administrative levels of the IRS for audits, collections, and appeals.
Milton G Boothe is also the author of several tax publications, wherein he encourages people to empower themselves by learning to do their own taxes.

Subscribe to TaxConnections Blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.