Exemption Question

[JenMO]

Child is 13, got into some sort of trouble. He has been in a treatment facility, ordered by the courts, for approx 6 months of 2011. Parents have had to pay some and are having to pay for family therapy. Can he be an exemption? If he lived with parents over 6 months, will that qualify him? Is this a temporary absence like school, or does it depend on who's paying for treatment facility?

[appelman]

I would consider it a temporary absence.

Unless he's expected to be there for the long haul. In the latter case, you might have to go the qualifying relative route and show that the parents were providing more than half his support, which can be tricky in an institutional situation.

[dan doshan]

Child is 13, got into some sort of trouble. He has been in a treatment facility, ordered by the courts, for approx 6 months of 2011. Parents have had to pay some and are having to pay for family therapy. Can he be an exemption? If he lived with parents over 6 months, will that qualify him? Is this a temporary absence like school, or does it depend on who's paying for treatment facility?

Based on the information above it would seem that the child would indeed be a qualifying child of the parents.