Exemption Question

[Kram BergGold]

My client moved out of his house on June 1 and his brother moved in, paying no rent. The brother had zero income for the year. When i list the brother as a dependent do I say he lived with the taxpayer or not?

[jim s]

exemption

you have to show that he was being supported by your client, if he has no income somebody has to feed him and keep him warm and continue to pay for the overhead of the house, only my opinion

[Jesse]

I would list as other dependent who lived with the taxpayer as long as > than 6 months which qualifies for a June 1st move in date.

[Grumpy]

Using the information in the OP, the two brothers did not live together at all. Since a brother is one of the persons who do not have to live with the taxpayer to be claimed as a dependent, why show that they lived together?

[Koss]

Qualifying Relative

I agree with the earlier posts to a certain degree.

Because of the relationship, it doesn't seem to matter whether the brother lived in the taxpayer's home. If the other criteria are met, the brother will be a qualifying relative.

In terms of the output, it really shouldn't matter. On the face of Form 1040, the brother will populate on the fourth line for dependents. He is not the taxpayer or the spouse, he is not a "child who lived with you," and he is not a "child who did not live with you due to divorce." He is a "dependent on 6c not listed above."

When you identify the relationship in column 3 as brother, this satisfies the relationship test, so it doesn't matter whether the person was a member of your household all year.

So regardless of how you answer the question in your program, the result should be the same.

With that said:

Your software should have a field that allows you indicate how many months, or at least a field to indicate whether the dependent:

- did not live in the home at all
- lived in the home less than half the year
- lived in the home more than half the year, but not the entire year
- lived in the home for the entire year

I say this because:

When there is no relationship to the dependent, then the person must live in the home the entire year to qualify as a dependent, and

If the brother is totally and permanently disabled, then he would qualify the taxpayer for EIC if he lived in the home for at least half the year.

On your fact pattern, Mark, I really don't think it makes a difference. But the software really should have a way of dealing with this...

Burton M. Koss
koss@usakoss.net

[Kram BergGold]

Agreed

Burton,
I was aware that it made no real difference in this case. I just thought if there was a correct way I might as well do ti that way. I think I'll go with lived with him for more than 6 months but less than a full year.

[Kram BergGold]

Interesting

I went into the program and changed from not living with, to living with and it makes no visable difference on 1040. The living with stuff only has to do with kids. Learn something new everyday.