[mj77]

Listed under the section from page 14, Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative)

Support provided by the state (welfare, food stamps, housing, etc.) Benifits provided by the state to a needy person generally are concidered support by the state. However, payments based on the needs of the recipient will not be concidered as used entirely for that person's support if it is shown that part of the payments were not used for that purpose.

Our foster children's support is concidered welfare. Note the last part of the quote where it states "not be concidered used entirely" which implies there is some part, the part that IS used for their support, is to be claimed.

[TNParent]

Originally Posted by mj77

Listed under the section from page 14, Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative)

Our foster children's support is concidered welfare. Note the last part of the quote where it states "not be concidered used entirely" which implies there is some part, the part that IS used for their support, is to be claimed.

Page 14, the support test for a qualifying RELATIVE does NOT apply at all to a foster child that you want to claim as a qualifying CHILD! See page 12 for the qualifying child support test.

Thats why you will never make it to line 23 on Worksheet 1...

I will call the IRS today and clear that up....

UPDATE: I called the IRS and talked to a Mrs. Varner and she said that Worksheet 1 applies for the support test and foster care payments for the child are NOT income or child's savings (Line 1) and would be support received by the state on Line 23 of the worksheet. Which means that it will not apply if your child is a qualifying child, only if you want to claim the child as a qualifying relative...

[Snipes5]

I know that I am new here, but I would like to clarify this discussion of the the tax law changes governing what constitutes a qualifying child.

Income from the state or any other agency is not income to the child, but it is considered support.

As someone above indicated, support (other than the child's *own* income) is not relevant to the qualifying child tests.

It is only if the Foster Child is considered a qualifying *relative* that other support would matter.

There is no reason I can think of to claim a foster child as a qualifying relative rather than a qualifying child, and in fact, one of the tests for a QR is that the person can't be a QC for anyone.

For the poster who had a child in their home who was born in 2005, if the child lived there the entire time, they are considered to have lived there the entire year for the year they were born.

This is also the case for a child who died during the year.

For those who have, and those who plan to call the IRS, their customer service phone error rate is close to 50%. Please take what they say with a large grain of salt.

If you want reliable advice, please seek the advice of a qualified tax professional such as an Enrolled Agent, CPA or attorney. In such cases, advice is often free.

Regards,
Snipes

PS I am an Enrolled Agent.

[mj77]

Thank you greatly Snipes for that clarification. I did take what the IRS said seriously because they are the IRS and I thought they are supposed to know what they are doing. But how you worded it makes sense, yet sounds complex (which is why I guess people hire accountants to do their taxes). Regardless, we found we were able to claim our foster son (who we are adopting anyway) pretty easily. I didn't want to see anyone making mistakes on that would come back to bite them.

Wow, an error rate of 50% from the IRS on the phone?! That's scary!

MJ

[TNParent]

Thanks for coming over from the FREE LEGAL ADVICE forum to post here, Snipes5