Dependency for Grandchild

[KBTS]

Last year, my clients' 19 year old son and his girlfriend had a baby who was born 10 weeks premature and only lived a couple of hours. The son graduated high school in June and only made around $4,000 working part-time afterward, so he still qualifies as a dependent for my client. The girlfriend was only 17, so she is still a dependent for her parents. The baby cannot be a dependent of either parent because they are dependents themselves, so I believe either of the sets of grandparents should be able to claim the baby (they have agreed my clients can claim the grandchild). Am I correct?

[ddoshan]

Was your clients son a qualifying child of theirs. It is possible he was not if he did not live at their home and or if his parents are not required to file a return. Also it is possible he did not meet the requirements of a student definition such as attending on a full time basis for 5 calendar months.

[KBTS]

Was your clients son a qualifying child of theirs. It is possible he was not if he did not live at their home and or if his parents are not required to file a return. Also it is possible he did not meet the requirements of a student definition such as attending on a full time basis for 5 calendar months.

All this info is in the original post.

[Koss]

Qualifying Child

Was your clients son a qualifying child of theirs. It is possible he was not if he did not live at their home and or if his parents are not required to file a return.

I agree that the 19 year old son must have been living in his parents' home in order to be their qualifying child. However, I fail to see why it matters whether the 19 year old's parents were required to file a return.

Furthermore, even if the 19 year old was not living in his parents' home, he may nevertheless be their dependent under the rules for a qualifying relative.

Also it is possible he did not meet the requirements of a student definition such as attending on a full time basis for 5 calendar months.

The original post says that the 19 year old graduated from high school in June. That strongly implies that the 19 year old was indeed a full-time student for some part of five months during 2012. The question is a valid one, but it appears that he was a full-time high school student from January 1, 2012 to a certain date in June, 2012.

I have a different question:

Who did the deceased infant live with?

The original post says the child only lived a couple hours. The child probably never left the hospital.

But the child nevertheless had a legal residence. With whom? The mother or the father?

At least in theory, this will determine whether the baby was the qualifying child of the mother's parents or the father's parents.

Or was the baby's mother living with the baby's father and his parents? Probably not, but such things are not unheard of.

Need more info.

Someone is going to ask what address is on the baby's birth certificate. I think that's completely irrelevant. The birth certificate normally identifies the father and the mother, and in this case, the father and mother may well have reported different addresses. So that says nothing about who the child would have lived with if he had survived.

However, the child's medical record, and the death certificate, will contain an address for the patient, which presumably reflects where the child would have lived.

That doesn't conclusively prove anything. But it could certainly have an influence in an audit...

BMK

[tpnl]

Form 8332

If the parents of the mother are "letting" your client claim the baby, I would get a Form 8332 signed by both the minor mother and her parents.

[Koss]

Form 8332 - Not.

Form 8332 can only be used to release the exemption and the child tax credit from the custodial parent to the noncustodial parent.

The original post asks whether the baby in question could be claimed by his grandparents.

Form 8332 is not applicable to this case at all.

I stand by my previous assertion that you must determine where the deceased child was living (or would have lived if he had survived) in order to address this scenario.

BMK

[tpnl]

I still would

Mother - custodial parent signs over to father who is the non-custodial parent.

[KBTS]

More info from client...

The child was born in mid-October. The son and girlfriend were living together on the upper floor of her grandfather's house for about a month before this - but the two sets of parents were pretty much paying all their bills. Both the son and girlfriend were still using their home address for everything. The death certificate lists the address as the girlfriend's home address, presumably because she filled out the paperwork for it.

I had wondered if the member of household test was going to be the sticking point here, and it appears it is. You just can't make up stuff like this!

[ddoshan]

I agree that the 19 year old son must have been living in his parents' home in order to be their qualifying child. However, I fail to see why it matters whether the 19 year old's parents were required to file a return.

If his parents were not required to file a return he would be eligible to file and claim the EIC.

[Gary2]

More info from client...

The child was born in mid-October. The son and girlfriend were living together on the upper floor of her grandfather's house for about a month before this - but the two sets of parents were pretty much paying all their bills. Both the son and girlfriend were still using their home address for everything. The death certificate lists the address as the girlfriend's home address, presumably because she filled out the paperwork for it.

I had wondered if the member of household test was going to be the sticking point here, and it appears it is. You just can't make up stuff like this!

Just to be clear, there are apparently grandparents, parents, teens, and baby, and the teens were living with grandparents just prior to the birth. If they were intending to continue living there with the baby, then the grandparents would likely be able to claim the baby. However, if the grandparents aren't required to file, then could either set of parents claim the baby as a qualifying relative? That would get down to support, so who paid the hospital bill? (Of course, QR can't get the CTC, which is the big number.)

[KBTS]

Just to be clear, there are apparently grandparents, parents, teens, and baby, and the teens were living with grandparents just prior to the birth. If they were intending to continue living there with the baby, then the grandparents would likely be able to claim the baby. However, if the grandparents aren't required to file, then could either set of parents claim the baby as a qualifying relative? That would get down to support, so who paid the hospital bill? (Of course, QR can't get the CTC, which is the big number.)

I think the intention after the baby was born was to live with whichever set of parents the kids were getting along with at the time - not being smart, but that is what my client told me. The grandfather was just letting them stay there because both kids were on the outs with their parents - but of course always came around when they needed money or help with something.