 Income tax 2021-2022, child tax credit dependent qualifications. Get ready to get refunds to the max, dive into income tax 2021-2022. We're looking at the Form 1040 Instructions Tax Share 2021, which you can find on the IRS website irs.gov, irs.gov. I'm going to scroll down here and just look at the dependents. So we're going to go on down to the dependents and jump down here. We're now looking at who qualifies as your dependent. We're just going to go through quickly the questionnaire on the right-hand side. Clearly, the qualifications for the dependents is one of the things that are linked to the child tax credit and the other dependent credit. The general thought process that we're thinking of is, is someone a dependent? If they're a dependent, are they going to be a qualifying child for the qualifying tax credit? And if they're not a qualifying child, are they a child that still possibly could qualify for the other dependent credit? And if they're not a child, then are they another dependent? And if so, possibly qualifying for the other dependent credit? That's the general thought process. So you can go through. I'm going to scroll in a bit here. You can go through the questionnaire and follow this process. Usually it's fairly straightforward as to whether someone is a dependent and whether they're going to be a qualifying child or not. You've got those gray areas that could come up. And when those happen, such as custody issues, for example, with regards to if someone is a dependent or not, then you can go to the instructions here on the form 1040 and do more research diving into that situation. So we've got number one. Do you have a qualifying child? A qualifying child is a child who is your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, step sister, half-brother, half-sister, or descendant of any of them. For example, your grandchild, niece, or nephew, and notice the and here as opposed to the or was we have the age limit test. So we have the relationship. Now we have the age under age 19 at the end of 2021 and younger than you or your spouse if filing jointly. So we got the 19 the general age. Typically they would be younger than you unless we had this like an unusual kind of situation happening here under age 24. At the end of 2021, a student defined later and younger than you. So then we could push the age up to 24, but they'd have to be a student. So when you're looking at these age tests, we have different ages. We're talking about the age test basically to be in this case, the qualifying child as opposed to whether or not they qualify for the child tax credit, which has a different kind of age requirements that will be involved here, which would be involved there. So you got to keep these age kind of requirements separate in your mind. So and then we have or any age and permanently and totally disabled, which would be defined later in that case. And the next test who didn't provide over half of his or her own support for 2021, sometimes called the support test. So you provided the support for them and who isn't filing a joint return for 2021. So typically they're not married filing a joint return because if they are, you'd basically usually be thinking, okay, I guess they're on their own now they're married and so on. Or is filing a joint return for 2021 only to claim a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax paid. So there's an exception to that rule if they're filing a joint return, which you could see publication for more details if that exception applies. And then we got living the living with you test, the household test, you might call it so who lived with you for more than half of 2021. So they have child didn't live with you for the required time, you can see exceptions to the time lived with you. So generally they're going to say they got to live with you. But then you have all these different kind of exceptions and circumstances where the child might not be living there. And if those apply, then you can take a look at the exceptions to the rule and dive into that in more detail. If the child meets the conditions to be a qualifying child of any other person, other than yourself if filing jointly for 2021 C qualifying child of more than one person later. So in other words, it's possible that you have two individuals possibly that basically meet these tests for the same person. And that's when it gets confusing with regards to the custody tests because you can't have two people claim in the same individual because the IRS is going to see that same social security number for the dependent. And you can't basically get the benefits related to that dependent on two different returns. So you got to get into what's going to happen in that situation. So do you have a qualified, do you have a child who meets the conditions to be your qualifying child? Now note we're talking about a qualifying child, not necessarily someone who meets the test to be to get the child tax credit at this point. They're a child with regards to the dependency. We're looking at the dependency. But if they meet that test, they're more likely to be able to qualify for the credit. So now they're a dependent. If you met that test and they would be a child, but then you have to think of whether or not they meet the requirements to be qualifying for the child tax credit. So if yes, I go to step two, if no, go to step four. So we're going to go to step two, assuming that they're a qualifying child at this point. So is your qualifying child your dependent? Number one, was the child a U.S. citizen U.S. national U.S. resident or alien or a resident of Canada or Mexico. So now we've got the whether there are citizen tests. For more information, you can see publication 519. If the child was adopted, you could see the exception to citizen test later. So if yes, then we're going to continue because they would need to be in order for us to qualify. If no, you can't claim this child as a dependent. So they could be a qualifying child, but then they don't meet the citizen test. And so no, what was the child married? So if yes, see married person later. If no, we're going to continue because typically they would need to not be married in general unless they have some kind of exception in order to be qualified as a dependent. Could you could you or your spouse if filing jointly be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2021 return C step one, two and four. If yes, you can't claim any dependence. So generally, if you yourself could be claimed somewhere else, the general rule with it with that you couldn't claim other dependence because you could be claimed as a dependent, meaning someone else is basically paying for your support information there. So you complete the rest of form 1040 or 1040 SR and any applicable schedules. If no, you can claim this child as a dependent, complete columns one through three of the dependent section on page one of form 1040 or 1040 SR for this child, then go to step three. Now step three gets into what we're looking at with which is the child tax credit. So now we've got to qualify a child that qualifies basically as a dependent. So we got the qualifying child that qualifies for a dependent. Do they qualify for the child tax credit then so does your qualifying child qualify you for the child tax credit or credit for other dependent. So number one did and obviously here we're trying to get the child tax credit first because that would be a lot larger than the other dependent credit. So did the child have an SSN Social Security number I-10 or adoption taxpayer identification number the A-10 issued on or before the due date of your return, including extensions? Answer yes, if you are applying for an I-10 or A-10 for the child on or before the due date of your return. If yes, you're going to continue because typically you need one. If no, you can't claim the child. You can't claim the child tax credit or the credit for other dependence. Number two was the child a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or U.S. resident alien. See publication 519 for the definition of U.S. national or U.S. resident alien. If the child was adopted, you could see the exception to citizen test later. If yes, we're going to continue on because typically they would need to be to claim the credit. If no, you can't claim the child tax credit or the credit for the other dependence for this child. And number three was the child under age 18. We have another age test. Note this is different than the age test as to whether they might qualify as a child with regards to being a dependent, which you'll recall was 19 or 24 if they're a student. Now we're talking about 18 to be able to qualify for the child tax credit as opposed to being over that age where you might be able then only to get the other dependent credit as opposed to the much larger child tax credit. So was the child under 18 at the end of 2021? Yes, you continue. If no, you can claim the credit for other dependence for this child. Check the quote credit for other dependence in quote box in column four of the dependence section on page one of form 1040. And then we're going to go to step four is your qualifying relative your dependent. So now we're skipping to the point where we said that they didn't qualify for a qualifying child. So now we're looking into whether they're going to be a qualifying relative. So if they're not a child for our dependency tests, then they may still qualify for a dependent, but would then have to qualify as a qualifying relative. We then look at the benefits for that. We would not be looking at the child tax credit, but we may still be able to get the other dependent credit, which of course would be much smaller but still, you know, applicable here. So a qualifying relative is a person who is your son, daughter, step child, foster child or descendant of any of them, for example, your grandchild. And you might be saying, well, wait a second, if they're the son, daughter, aren't they a qualifying child then? Well, they're going to be over the age test. So they didn't meet the age test for a qualifying child, but still possibly could qualify for a qualifying relative, in that case, or a brother, sister, half brother, half sister, or a son or daughter of any of them, for example, your niece or nephew or father, mother, or an ancestor or sibling of other of them, for example, your grandmother, grandfather, aunt and uncle, stepbrother, or stepbrother, step sister, stepfather, stepmother, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law, or any other person other than your spouse who lived with you all year as a member of your household if your relationship didn't violate local law, if the person didn't live with you for the required time, see the exception to time-lift with you later. So you've got a pretty wide area here for the other dependent. There's going to be a lot more restriction with regards to the income tests, however. And who wasn't a qualifying child, so obviously if they were a qualifying child, then they would qualify as a qualifying child and we would never have moved to this step. We would then move on from qualifying child in that fork in the road. But we said they didn't qualify for a qualifying child. That's why we're here. So if they were, you go to step one. If any taxpayer for 2021, for this purpose, a person isn't a taxpayer if he or she isn't required to file a U.S. income tax return and either doesn't file such a return or files only to get a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax. See publication 501 for details and example. And who had gross income of less than $4,300 in 2021. So there's a pretty low threshold for the gross income. So if the person was permanently and totally disabled, you could see the exception to that rule. You could see the exception to gross income test. And if that's the case, you can dive into that later looking at the instructions here. But pretty low threshold on the gross income. And for whom you provide over half his or her support in 2021, you would think this one's kind of repetitive because somebody would most likely be providing over half someone's report with the income at the $4,300. So you got the support test. So but see children of divorced or separated parents, multiple support agreements and kidnapped child later. So those are the general rules that you get. You can kind of dive in here and and pick out as to the dependents. Are they a qualifying child? And then if so, do they qualify for the child tax credit? If not, you look for the other dependent credit. If they're not a qualifying child, are they a qualifying other dependent? If so, then you possibly be able to qualify for the qualifying the other dependent credit. And then if you have any of the gray areas that could be involved here with like citizens see kind of gray area, or, you know, adoption situation, or quite often you have these custody situations where two people might be able to claim someone as a dependent, which could cause all kinds of problems. You'd like to get that stuff as clear as possible with any kind of joint custody agreement. So that so that so that you don't have to haggle with the IRS or talk to the IRS about issues with tax returns that have been filed and so on. So and for those informations, you can you can take a look at the instructions for the 1040 instructions and dive into them in more detail.