Qualifying child of more than one person, AGI and tiebreaker rules

To meet your due diligence requirements, you must ask the appropriate questions and document your client's answers. You do not have the responsibility to verify AGI.

Your client does not need to know the exact amount of the AGI of the child's parent(s) for the year, but your client should be able to determine if his or her AGI is higher than the AGI of the parent with the highest adjusted gross income.

Let your client know EITC tax law requires the information to determine who is eligible to claim the EITC, and you are asking to make sure you file an accurate return.

If your client is reluctant to answer, you may want to hand them Publication 4717, Help Your Tax Preparer Get Your Tax Return Right PDF. This publication helps explain why you need to ask the questions.

If your client does not have the information or refuses to answer your questions, you must decide whether to prepare the return.

Note: Consider whether the state in which the parents live recognizes the parents' relationship as a common law marriage.

Only a taxpayer who pays more than half of the household expenses may qualify for head of household filing status.

If a child is a qualifying child of both the parents, generally, only one parent can claim the child as a qualifying child for all of the child-related tax benefits: EITC, child tax credit, credit for other dependents or additional child tax credit, head of household filing status, credit for child and dependent care expenses, and the exclusion for dependent care benefits.

One parent cannot claim head of household filing status and the child tax credit, and the other parent claim the EITC for the same child. The other person can’t take any of these tax benefits unless they have a different qualifying child.

If both parents claim the same child for child-related tax benefits, the IRS applies a tiebreaker rule. If a child lived with each parent the same amount of time during the year, the IRS allows the parent with the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) to claim the child. See Publication 596, Earned Income Credit or Publicación 596 (SP), Crédito por Ingreso del Trabajo (in Spanish) PDF, for more information on the tiebreaker rules.

A tool that may help is Publication 3524, EITC Eligibility Checklist PDF or Publicación 3524 (SP), Lista de verificación de elegibilidad (in Spanish) PDF.

If the parent of the child is the qualifying child of the grandparent, the parent may not claim the EITC.

If the parent's AGI is higher than the AGI of the grandparent, the grandparent may not claim the child as a qualifying child for the EITC or any other child-related benefit.

If the grandparent's AGI is higher than the AGI of any parent eligible to claim the child, the grandparent can claim the child as a qualifying child for the EITC if neither parent claims the child.

If two taxpayers can claim a child as a qualifying child for child-related tax benefits, the IRS applies the tiebreaker rules. Read more about the tiebreaker rules.

We also have some examples of this and similar situations. See Handling common due diligence situations.

Yes. If the child is a qualifying child of both a parent and a grandparent, the child would be treated as the qualifying child of the parent if both the parent and grandparent claimed the child as a qualifying child for tax-related benefits. The AGI rule for a nonparent only applies if a parent may claim a child as a qualifying child, but no parent claims the child as a qualifying child.

No, generally, you cannot split the child-related tax benefits for a qualifying child: EITC, dependency exemption, child tax credit, head of household filing status, credit for child and dependent care expenses and the exclusion for dependent care benefits. There is an exception for divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart. See the next answer for more information on this exception.

Probably not. The custodial parent may release the dependency exemption and the child tax credit to the noncustodial parent, but not the EITC. To claim the EITC, the child must have lived with you in the United States for more than half of the year. If his son did not live with him for more than half of the year, the father may not claim the EITC.

Here are the rules for divorced parents as stated in Publication 596:

Special rule for divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart.

A child will be treated as the qualifying child of his or her noncustodial parent (for purposes of claiming an exemption and the child tax credit, but not for the EIC) if all of the following apply:

1. The parents:
   • Are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance,
   • Are separated under a written separation agreement, or
   • Lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the tax year, whether or not they are or were married.
2. The child received over half of his or her support for the year from the parents.
3. The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half of the tax year.
4. Either of the following statements is true.
   • The custodial parent signs Form 8332 or a substantially similar statement that he or she will not claim the child as a dependent for the year, and the noncustodial parent attaches the form or statement to his or her return. If the divorce decree or separation agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, the noncustodial parent may be able to attach certain pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332.

A pre-1985 decree of divorce or separate maintenance or written separation agreement that applies to the tax year provides that the noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent, and the noncustodial parent provides at least $600 for support of the child during the tax year. See additional scenarios for divorced or separated parents.