Dependent

What Is A Dependent?

A dependent is someone who is financially reliant on another person, such as kids or other relatives. A dependent is an individual who qualifies the employee/taxpayer for the dependency exclusion. Each dependent exclusion reduces taxable income by the price of the exclusion.

Deeper Definition

A dependent is an individual that can be declared as an exclusion on a tax return by a taxpayer. The primary source of backing for a dependent has to be the individual seeking the exemption. Each dependent can only claim a single exclusion, and nobody can be declared dependent by more than one taxpayer.

Types of Dependent are as thus:

Qualifying child: If a dependent is a qualifying kid or relation, the IRC relationship test must be met—and the dependent must be regarded as a qualifying kid.

To claim a dependent, you must meet the following requirements:

You must spend approximately 50% of the year at the taxpayer’s residence.

You must be a close family member of the taxpayer, as defined by the Internal Revenue Service.

You must be under the age of 19, or if a student, under the age of 24

If a child is the taxpayer’s qualified child, the youngster cannot be an eligible relative.

Qualifying Relative: The “not a qualifying child” criteria, the resident of household or family examine, the net earnings check, and the support check must all be met by a qualified relative.

Anyone who filed a joint return (as a married couple) cannot include anyone dependent on their tax return, and you must be a US citizen to be listed as a dependent.

IRC tests, which must be passed, indicate dependency. The dependent taxpayer, joint, and citizen tests are all examples of these tests. Anyone who can be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer cannot claim anyone as a dependent on their own tax return.

Dependent Example

Consider Julie’s family, who applied for a dependent exclusion following her divorce. The family’s combined gross income used to be $20,000, but Julie has been unemployed since the divorce and is looking for work.