Another EITC question...

[AccTaxMan]

Taxpayer and spouse have two dependent children, Mary and David. Mary is 21 years old (full time student with no income) and David is 16 years old. And they are the only people lived in the household for the whole year of 2012.

On Form 8879 part II question 13(a) "Could any other person check "Yes" on lines 9, 10, 11 and 12 for the child?", should we enter the information of Mary in David's column and also enter the information of David in Mary's column?

[geekgirldany]

Off the top of my head, if they are married, no. If you did not know Mary's situation in that she had no income, then you would need to fill it out.

[AccTaxMan]

Off the top of my head, if they are married, no. If you did not know Mary's situation in that she had no income, then you would need to fill it out.

I think you misunderstood my question. Mary is the dependent daughter and David is the dependent son. In the tax return of their parents, there is a column for the information of Mary and David in Form 8867 Part II since they are both qualifying children of their parents for EITC purpose. Since Mary did live with David for more than half of the year, should box 13(a) in David's column be checked "yes" and her relationship to David as "sister" entered in 13(b)?

[appelman]

I would enter "no" for both.

You can disregard persons who have no filing requirement other than possibly to obtain a refund.

[AccTaxMan]

You can disregard persons who have no filing requirement other than possibly to obtain a refund.

That's what I thought. But I have the doubt when I was filling up a Form 8862 for a client. In Form 8862 question 7, the question is:

"Did any other person (except your spouse, if filing jointly, and your dependents under age 19) live with child 1, child 2, or child 3 for more than half the year shown on line 1?"

I think the answer about David to this question is "Yes" since Mary did live with him for more than half the year and she is over age 19.

So does that mean we are supposed to answer "no" to the question in Form 8867 but answer "yes" to this question in Form "8862" while they are basically asking about the same issue?

[appelman]

I guess you're right.

The way it's worded, you have to check yes for both children on Form 8867 and yes for the younger child on Form 8862. Idiotic!