Thursday, December 31, 2009

Can a parent claim a child as a dependent if that child is married?

If they are married in July, could the parent still claim them in April?


Will this effect the status of dependency on the FAFSA?Can a parent claim a child as a dependent if that child is married?
Either you or the child can claim the deduction,but not both...######Can a parent claim a child as a dependent if that child is married?
You cannot claim anyone who filed a joint return.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, and I quote: ';You cannot claim a married person who files a joint return as a dependent unless that joint return is only a claim for refund and there would be no tax liability for either spouse on separate returns';





Fortunately, that is not a headache any more. Your child and his or her spouse may stick in the software { and you don't need to buy expensive tax software} the filing status of Married filing separately, then the filing status of Married filing jointly. If there is no tax liability either way for your child and your in-law, you may claim your child. For you to claim the exemption, your child AND your in-law would have to give up their exemption since the IRS says ';and there would be no tax liability for either spouse on separate returns';. For federal tax purposes, a marriage means only a legal union between a man and a woman as husband and wife. So if they had a baby, they could be eligible for Child and Dependent care expense credit, the Child Tax Credit and the earned income credit. They would be giving up their exemptions in figuring. They would have to run the software to determine which is best for their family. If you all are close, you could run your software and they run their software to determine how much you all would save on your taxes overall.





As for FAFSA, your child could not deduct any of his/her tuition. You would get the deduction if you claimed your child as a dependent. If the IRS allows you to claim the exemption for your child, it means the IRS has determined that you provide over 50% of your child's support. They may send you a form to fill out that asks everything - rent paid,utilities, insurance, transportation, even how much you paid for the groceries.





When you ask: ';...could the parent still claim them in April?'; Do you mean the tax season of January - April? I think you do; it's not crystal clear. Best to you and your family.
There are some pretty complex rules on claiming a child after they get married - you really need to go to Turbo Tax or another website and answer all of the questions to find out for sure.





BTW, you claim them for a year, so you would claim them for 2007 - the month is irrelevent. I'm guessing you no longer provide more than 50% of their support, so probably can't claim them.





Yes, this also impacts FAFSA.
If the child files a joint return with a spouse, then no the parent can't claim them.





Otherwise, if they meet all the rules for claiming them if they hadn't gotten married, they still can.

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