How to Claim Children on Taxes
Claiming children on your taxes is a straightforward task, but you must make sure that you are legally entitled to claim them as dependents. You can claim kids that are yours if you pay more than one-half of their expenses and upkeep during the year. If you are divorced, only one parent can claim the child as a dependent. You can also claim children that are not yours, such as foster kids or kids you have taken in, as long as they lived with you the entire year. In most instances, you can still claim children who are away at college.
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Instructions
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Locate the line on your tax return where it asks you to enter the number of your dependents. Write the number of dependent children that you can claim here.
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Enter the name and social security number of each child that you can legally claim as a dependent. If you are divorced, you generally can only claim a child if you are the custodial parent. However, you can claim a child as the non-custodial parent if the custodial parent signs Form 8332 waiving the right to do so.
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Review IRS Publication 972 to see if you qualify for the child tax credit. The amount of this credit that you can claim decreases as your income rises, so higher earners may not qualify. This is a separate credit from the earned income credit and can only be used by taxpayers who claim a child on their taxes.
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References
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- Photo Credit children image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
