I have a client who has been paying child support on his son. The son's mother passed away last week and my client has never been able to claim his son. They were never married. In most cases the child will automatically be placed with the surviving parent. I know that a tax return may possibly have to be filed for the deceased mother but the last two years she has allowed her parents to claim the child and refused the exemption to the father. Has anyone had a client in this situation. I need some help with this one since the child has been living with the mother his entire life. If the parents do file a return for her they more than likely would not be able to cash the check.
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Not this year
There is no way your client will get dependency for 2005. He did not have custody for more than half of the year, and the mother did not sign over the exemption to him on Form 8332. Child support payments are irrelevant. So the Qualifying Child rule is out.
As to the Qualifying relative rule, although the father may have passed the over 50% support test, he fails the “not a qualifying child" test because the child is a qualifying child of the mother.
You will have to wait until 2006 when the father passes the member of household test before he can claim a dependency exemption for his son.Last edited by Bees Knees; 12-28-2005, 09:45 PM. -
qualifying dependent
You said in your post that the mother let her parents claim the child in previous years. She must have been living with her parents? Otherwise how would they qualify and the husband would not.kenComment
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