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Sometimes a child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person. However, only one person can treat that child as a qualifying child for:

• The EITC,
• The dependency exemption,
• The child tax credit,
• Head of household filing status,
• The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits, and
• The credit for the child and dependent care expenses.
  

A qualifying child cannot be used by more than one person. If a child qualifies for more than one person and one of the persons is a parent or parents, the non-parent can claim the child only if their AGI is higher than the parent(s). If the child qualifies another relative and the parent AGI rules do not apply, the taxpayers choose. If you and someone else have the same qualifying child, and the Parent AGI rule does not apply, you and the other person(s) can decide who claims the benefits including the EITC.

If more than one person claims the EITC and/or any of the other tax benefits listed above using the same child, the IRS applies the tiebreaker rules below. If the other person is your spouse and you file a joint return, the rules do not apply. If you are divorced or separated and you give or will be giving the child’s other parent the right to claim the child as a dependent by signing a Form 8332 or similar written declaration, these rules also do not apply to the dependency exemption and child tax credit. For information for divorced and separated parents, see Publication 501.

Tie-Breaker Rules

To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim the six tax benefits just listed, the following tie-breaker rules apply:

• If only one of the persons is the child’s parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
• If the parents do not file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for a longer period of time during the year.
• If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.
• If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
• If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person’s AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child’s parents. If the child’s parents file a joint return, you can apply this rule by treating the parents’ total AGI as divided evenly between them.

Caution: This tie-breaker rule does not apply if the other person is your spouse and you and your spouse file a joint return. The rule does not apply to the dependency exemption and the child tax credit if the rules for divorced or separated parents apply.

If another person uses your qualifying child to claim the EITC using the tie breaker rule, you can claim the EITC only if you have another qualifying child. You cannot take the credit using the rules for those with no qualifying child.

If you have a qualifying child and do not claim the EITC using that qualifying child, you cannot take the EITC for those who do not have a qualifying child. You may be able to take the EITC using a different qualifying child. If you do not have another qualifying child, you cannot take the EITC.

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