define legal dependant according to the IRS?

Answer 1

The IRS recognizes two types of dependents: a qualifying child and a qualifying relative.

A qualifying child must be related to you in one of certain ways, such as child, grandchild, sibling, niece, nephew. They must be under 19, or under 24 and a full-time student, or permanently and totally disabled. They must have lived with you for over half of the year. They must not have provided over half of their OWN support for the year - note that this doesn't say that YOU must have provided half of their support.

A qualifying relative is not your qualifying child, and not the qualifying child of anyone else. They must either be closely related to you as defined in a list by the IRS, or must have lived with you the ENTIRE tax year. Their gross income for the year must be less than $3300 for 2006 - the limit changes a little bit each year. You must provide more than half of their total support for the year.

This is just an overview - there are additional rules. See Chapter 3 of IRS Publication 17 for more complete info.

Answer 2

Someone who is related to you, lives with you, and you provide at least 50% of their financial support.

There are exceptions to this, but that's the general rules as stated in IRS Tax Topic 354.

Answer 3

A legal dependent is a person for who you provide and will continue to provide more than half his/her support. Support includes money, gifts, loans, housing, food, clothing, automobile, medical and dental care, and payments of college costs. If you have a child and the child is supported by someone else they are not a dependent.

Answer 4

I believe the definition of "legal dependent" is someone who lives with you more than 6 months out of the year and who doesn't work because they attend school, or who does work but is not the one who earns the money that supports the household.