Taxpayer claims son's fiance and child

[sshams95]

Married taxpayers claimed on a joint return:

Son

Son's fiance

Fiance's child (son is not the father of child)

All 3 lived in taxpayer's home all of 2008. None of them earned more than gross income limit of $3500. Therefore, taxpayers provided more than 50% support for all three and claimed them on tax return.

However, fiance's mother, who lives in a separate state claimed the fiance and the fiance's child even they did not live with her and she did not provide any support whatsoever. She filed first and claimed both of them.

Does the taxpayer have a right to claim them?

[kcjenkins]

Go to Pub 501 Page 11, and run through the tests for each of them.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

[jainen]

>>None of them earned more than gross income limit of $3500. Therefore, taxpayers provided more than 50% support for all three<<

The gross income test is NOT a part of the support test for qualifying relatives. Follow kc's link to do a proper, technical documentation of this relationship, including whether co-habitation is legal in your state. This is a common setup for welfare families and the unemployed, so be sure to look into the possibility of non-taxable sources. Also note that the child can not be your client's qualifying relative if the child's mother has to file a tax return for EIC, stock sales, SE income, pension withdrawal, etc.

You must not assume that the grandmother's claim for qualifying relatives is improper. Find out what it is based on. Your analysis is muddied by irrelevant facts like "they did not live with her" and "she filed first."