dependent minor child receiving soc sec

[RWG1950]

Have a 67 year old retired customer( 97K AGI in 2018), on social security, that married a twentysomething lady about three years ago.
They've had 3 kids in 3 years (twins last year). Kids are each getting $ 550 or so monthly from social security.
Dad tells me this all goes into his checking account & is used to pay household expenses. I hadn't previously known about this.
My concern is whether the parents have actually provided more than 1/2 of the kids support for the 2019 tax year.
Mom & dad had AGI of 97K in 2018. Expect similar AGI for 2019. Have sent the taxpayers the IRS support worksheet to fill out.
Haven't seen their figures yet, but think their kids might not qualify for dependency. Anyone else have experience with this issue or be willing to offer a comment ?

[TaxGuyBill]

As you say, the support worksheet should be filled out. However, at first glance, it seems likely that the children did NOT pay for over 1/2 of their own support.

So total household income is roughly $120,000. If estimate that is fully spent, and go with the rough assumption that the benefits of that spending is evenly spread out amount family members, that is roughly $24,000 per person for annual support per person. If the child has less than $7000 of income, that is nowhere near 50%.

Obviously I realize that the entire $120,000 may not be spent and may not be evenly spent among family member, but at first glance it seems likely the children did not pay for over 50% of their own support.


On an unrelated note, I'm curious why the children receive Social Security. Is that a benefit if you are collecting Social Security, that your minor children get it too??? Maybe I'll Google that. :-)

[RWG1950]

We had something of a reply discussion on this last week. It is my understanding that when a retiree receives soc sec benefits, all dependent children under 18, each receive soc sec payments to at least attaining age 18. (not sure about the eligibility requirements & if it works exactly this way - just my understanding)

[Burke]

We had something of a reply discussion on this last week. It is my understanding that when a retiree receives soc sec benefits, all dependent children under 18, each receive soc sec payments to at least attaining age 18. (not sure about the eligibility requirements & if it works exactly this way - just my understanding)

Yes, that is correct. See previous threads on this. This would be the case if the TP parent reached his Full Retirement Age for Social Security purposes before drawing benefits or qualified for SSA disability. It does not apply to early SSA retirement if they are receiving those payments The minor children each get 1/2 (or in the case of disability 75%) of the monthly benefit of the primary SS recipient. So it can be a whole lot more than $500 per child for a recipient who is drawing the maximum. The child reports on his/her tax return, not the parents'.

See this link. https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10085.pdf

[New York Enrolled Agent]

My concern is whether the parents have actually provided more than 1/2 of the kids support for the 2019 tax year.

I think your concern is going backwards. Read the second sentence in TGB's post. That's what your concern should be for a qualifying child.