Tax Return 2021 Qualifying Child-Who Claims the Child This Year

1. Relationship test: The child must be your son or daughter (natural, adopted, step and in some cases foster) or a descendant of your sibling.

2. Age Test: The child must be younger than you and either younger than 19 years old, be a "student" younger than 24 years old as of the end of the calendar year, or any age but permanently and totally disabled.

3. Residency Test: The child must live with you in the United States for more than half the year.

4. Joint return test: The child cannot file a joint return unless doing so to claim a tax refund.

5. Support test: The child does not provide more than half of his or her own support.

6. Multiple people claiming the child as a dependent: Where one parent has physical custody of the child, he or she can waive treating the child as a dependent to permit the noncustodial parent to do so. The waiver can be annually or permanently.

Where 2 people are eligible to treat the child as a dependent, a "tie breaker rules" comes into play. Generally, the person with greater physical custody. This is determined by counting the nights that the child spends with each person is determinative. However, when there's an even split, other rules are used decide which person can treat the child as a dependent.