be claimed on taxes?

Question

my stepson turned 18 in august 2006. he has not lived with either parent for over a year. he has lived in a juvinile facility called independent living. we live in pennsylvania. he had his self amacipated from his parents. he did work & would be getting a refund of almost 150.00. his father claimed him on his taxes. is this leagal? what can we do about this? can my stepson still file & get a return? this is very upsetting. his father does nothing for him. he did pay child support but it went to the facility where my step son stayed. thank you in advance for your help

Answer 1

If he didn't live with his father for over half the year, and his father didn't provide over half of his support, then he had no right to claim him.

Your stepson should file his own return, and NOT check the box that he can be claimed as a dependent. That will trigger the IRS to question both the father and your stepson to see who is legally allowed to take the exemption, and the father who claimed him illegally will have to pay back the taxes he saved by claiming him, plus interest and possibly penalties.

Your stepson will have to file his return by mail, not online. When he gets a letter from the IRS about the double claiming, he should respond as quickly as possible (definitely by the deadline given in the letter) and give them full information.

Answer 2

Generally, if he payed the support, he had every right to claim the kid. It's no different than him paying the support to the mother for the kid's upkeep, he just paid the support to the facility for the kid's upkeep. He cannot claim him now, from 2007 forward, but his support payments to the facility made him eligible to claim the kid last year.

Also, you say he turned 18 in August, and you don't say when he was emancipated. As long as the support was paid for 6 months of the year, he still had the right to claim the kid. The emancipation really has no bearing on the tax thing - I can claim my adult mother as a dependent if she does not work and I provide the required amount of support (per tax guidelines) for her in a year.

It sounds like you need to talk to an accountant or IRS employee to understand how these things work. I could be wrong based on any details you may not have thought about mentioning here, but this is a general answer based on the way you asked.

Answer 3

If he's emancipated no one should be claiming him as a dependent, but then his father shouldn't be paying child support, either. Emancipated means that you go to court to sever your parents responsibility. When your stepson files his taxes, his father will have to deal with the IRS for claiming him fraudulently.