 Income tax 2021-2022. Who qualifies as your dependent? Part number three, questionnaire. Get ready to get refunds to the backs, diving into income tax 2021-2022. Jumping on over to the form 1040 tax year 2021 instructions found on the IRS website, irs.gov, irs.gov. This questionnaire can help us determine if someone is gonna qualify as a dependent or typically looking at the hierarchy here, first trying to see if they qualify as a dependent child. If they do, we might get a more bigger benefit, possibly giving us a benefit for the child tax credit, for example, which can be significant. If not, then we default to if they qualify for a other dependent, and if they do, then we could still get an other dependent, basically credit. So that's gonna weigh the questionnaire and how you wanna organize it in your thoughts. Do they qualify as a qualifying child? Are they gonna get access to then the benefits related to it, which could be the child tax credit, could also have benefits on things like the earned income tax credit, for example. And if not, then do they still qualify as an other dependent? So questionnaire, step number one, do you have a qualifying child? That's the first question we're gonna start off with. A qualifying child is a child who is, and this is kinda like the relative test you can think about listing out for all the possibilities here. Son, daughter, step child, foster child, brother, sister, step brother, step sister, half brother, half sister, or a descendant of any of them, for example, your grandchild, niece, or nephew. And notice the distinction here, and rather than an or. So and was under age 19, so we have an age test going on at the end of 2021 and younger than you or your spouse of filing joint. So you have that age test at 19, notice it says at the end of 2021, and then that kinda gray area, that unusual situation where they have, and they were younger than you, which would typically be the case. Under age 24, at the end of 2021, a student which will define later and younger than you or your spouse if filing joint. So we got the age test 19, or we can push it up to 24 if we're a student which is defined at a future point. Any age and permanently and totally disabled. So in the event that they're permanently and totally disabled defined later, then that would be the other condition to eliminate in essence the age test. And who didn't provide over half his or her own support for 2021, so they didn't provide the support presumably, you would provide the support, you can see more information on that in publication 501 and who isn't filing a joint return for 2021. So the general rule is they're not filing a joint return like they're married, married filing joint for example, or is filing a joint return for 2021 only to claim their refund or withhold income tax or estimate a tax payment. So you have that exception to that rule here, if that's an exception that applies, you can dive into more detail publication 501 and who lived with you for more than half of 2021, if the child didn't live with you for the required time, that's the exception to the time lived with you later. So then you got the living with you rule and so they lived with you for more than half of the year, but then you've got the exceptions to that in the event that there's gonna be exceptions to that particular rule. So if the child meets the conditions to be a qualifying child of any other person, other than the person if filing jointly for 2021, see qualifying child for more than one person. So if you have a gray area, we talked about this in a prior presentation where they qualify for multiple people, then you gotta have like the tie breaking rules that you can go into more detail here. So number one, do you have a child who meets the conditions to be your qualifying child? So if you're saying yes, then we're gonna go to step two here, is your qualifying child your dependent? If no, then we're gonna be going to then to step four. So we're gonna assume yes here to start off with, we're gonna go to step two. Next question, is your qualifying child your dependent? Number one, was the child a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. resident alien, or resident of Canada or Mexico? You can see publication 519 for more detail there for the definition of a U.S. national or U.S. resident alien. If the child was adopted, you could see exceptions to certain tests later. So in certain situations again, you've got the gray areas that you can go into more detail. So if yes, then we would continue. If no, you can't claim the child as dependent. So we're gonna assume yes and continue. Was the child married? So if they were yes, see married person later. If no, which you would typically think would be the case, we're gonna assume no, then we would continue to number three. Could you or your spouse, if filing jointly, be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2021 tax returns? Now we're talking about you as the file or not the dependent. Could you be claimed on someone else's return? See step one, two, and four. If yes, you can't claim any dependence because you could be claimed as dependent yourself. 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 number three. So let's assume here that we're gonna go on to step number three. Does your qualifying child qualify you for the child tax credit or credit for other dependents? So obviously this is gonna be the next big thing here. You would like for them to be qualifying as a qualifying child because that would be a much bigger credit than the other dependents. So number one, that the child have an SSN social security number or ITIN or adoption taxpayer identification number, the ATIN issued on or before the due date of your return, including extensions, answer yes if you are applying for an ITIN or ATIN for the child on or before the due date of your return, including extensions. So we're gonna assume yes here and continue on to number two. Was the child a US citizen, US national or US resident alien? You can see publication 519 for the definition of a US national or US resident alien. If the child was adopted, you can see the exceptions. We're gonna assume yes here. If no, you can't claim the child. So we'll assume yes, go to number three. Was the child under age 18? So we got another kind of age test. Notice this was a different age test than we saw before, which was the 19 to 24. Now we're talking under 18 at the end of 2021 because we're looking into this child tax credit versus whether they qualify for, as a child for a dependent. So here we've got the 18. So if we're gonna say yes, if they're under 18, if no, you can claim the credit for other dependents for this child. So if they're over 18, which they could be because they might be a full-time student, for example, we have the 19 rule and the full-time student rule before, they could still be your child but not qualify for the child tax credit in that case. But if they're under 18, then we're gonna say yes and continue on to the next item, which is going to be number four. Did this child have an SSN valid for employment issued before the due date of your 2020 return, including extensions? Yes, if yes, you can claim the child tax credit for this person. Check the child tax credit box in column four of the dependent section on page one, a form 1040 or 1040 SR for this person. If no, you can claim the credit for other dependents for this child. Check the credit for other dependents box in column four of the dependent section on page one of form 1040. Okay, let's go to step four. So if I go back on up here and go to my questionnaire and we say we got down to the bottom of one, step one, and it says, do you have a child that meets the conditions of your qualifying child? And we're gonna say no this time. Then it says we go to step four and say, okay, if they don't meet that condition, do they still qualify as another dependent who's not the qualifying child? So let's go down to step four. Is your qualifying relative your dependent? So now we're looking for the, we've kind of gone away from the child tax credit. We're not gonna get that. And we're still trying to say, well, is this person still gonna be a dependent, possibly benefiting in that way? 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 or 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 either of them. For example, your grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle or step brother, step sister, step father, step mother, 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 the relationship didn't violate local law. If the person didn't live with you for the required time, see the exception to the rule. And the exception typically is like with a parent here. So you got a pretty wide range in terms of the kind of relationship test here. So then, and who wasn't a qualifying child, see step one, because if they were a qualifying child, then they would be up on the first half. We have already determined that they're not a qualifying child. So who wasn't a qualifying child of any taxpayer for 2021, for any taxpayer, 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 pay and who had gross income of less than 4,300 in 2021. So that income test, pretty low income test right there. And so that could be a stopper sometime. So if the person was permanently and totally disabled, see exception, so you might have an exception to the rule of the income text in that event and for whom you provided over half his or her support in 2021. So notice you got the support test and the income test. So obviously if they've made under 4,300, you would think someone would be supporting over half of their support at that point. So see child of divorce or separate parents, multiple support agreement and kidnapping child later. So those number four, so then we have number one, does any person meet the conditions to be your qualifying relative? So if we say yes, then we continue. If no, we would stop. So we're gonna continue. Two, was your qualifying relative a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. resident alien or resident of Canada or Mexico? See publication 519 for the definition of a U.S. resident or U.S. resident alien. We're gonna consume yes. If it was no, you can't claim the person as a dependent. So we'll say yes here, go to number three. Was your qualifying relative married? So we're gonna say if yes, see married person. So that would typically be a problem to qualify for a dependent. If no, which was what we would expect if they were dependent, we're gonna check that off and go to the next one. Number four, could you or your spouse of filing jointly be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2021 tax return? See step one, two and four. If yes, stop. You can't claim the dependent. If no, you can claim this person as a dependent, complete columns one through three of the dependent section on page one of form 1040 or 1040 SR. So obviously this, you can go through this kind of formal questionnaire. And then if there are gray areas, then you could go into the more detail on those gray areas and you wanna be able to kind of visualize in general what the questionnaire would be basically looking like. In essence, trying to see if someone qualifies as a qualifying child. If so, are they gonna be getting the child tax credit? You wanna understand probably having your mind those age limitations, the 19, the 24, the 18, so that you could discuss those key basic numbers with people and then have the idea of the benefits that you're gonna get with regards to a qualifying child versus kind of an other dependent typically with regards or you're mainly thinking on the credits that will be involved with the child tax credit, other dependent and then possibly having implications with regards to earned income tax credits and possibly with regards to the changing of status if you're talking single person who may qualify for, for example, head of household.