Artículo Foster care payments and expenses.. Foster care payments and expenses.

id="en_US_2025_publink1000252774"> Foster care payments and expenses. Payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a child placement agency are considered support provided by the agency. Similarly, payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a state or county are considered support provided by the state or county. If you aren't in the trade or business of providing foster care and your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses in caring for a foster child were mainly to benefit an organization qualified to receive deductible charitable contributions, the expenses are deductible as charitable contributions but aren't considered support you provided. For more information about the deduction for charitable contributions, see Pub. 526. If your unreimbursed expenses aren't deductible as charitable contributions, they may qualify as support you provided. If you are in the trade or business of providing foster care, your unreimbursed expenses aren't considered support provided by you. Example 1. A foster child lived with a married couple, the Smiths, for the last 3 months of the year. The Smiths cared for the foster child because they wanted to adopt the child (although the child had not been placed with them for adoption). They didn't care for the foster child as a trade or business or to benefit the agency that placed the foster child in their home. The Smiths' unreimbursed expenses aren't deductible as charitable contributions but are considered support they provided for the foster child. Example 2. You provided $3,000 toward your 10-year-old foster child's support for the year. The state government provided $4,000, which is considered support provided by the state, not by the child. See Support provided by the state (welfare, food stamps, housing, etc.) , later. Your foster child didn't provide more than half of their own support for the year. Scholarships. A scholarship received by a child who is a student isn't taken into account in determining whether the child provided more than half of their own support. Joint Return Test (To Be a Qualifying Child) To meet this test, the child can’t file a joint return for the year. Exception. An exception to the joint return test applies if your child and the child’s spouse file a joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid. Example 1—Child files joint return. You supported your 18-year-old child who lived with you all year while your child’s spouse was in the Armed Forces. Your child’s spouse earned $35,000 for the year. The couple files a joint return so this child isn't your qualifying child. Example 2—Child files joint return only as a claim for refund of withheld tax. Your 18-year-old child and your child’s 17-year-old spouse had $800 of wages from part-time jobs and no other income. They lived with you all year. Neither is required to file a tax return. They don’t have a child. Taxes were taken out of their pay so they filed a joint return only to get a refund of the withheld taxes. The exception to the joint return test applies, so this child may be your qualifying child if all the other tests are met. Example 3—Child files joint return to claim American opportunity credit. The facts are the same as in Example 2 , except no taxes were taken out of either spouse’s pay. However, they file a joint return to claim an American opportunity credit of $124 and get a refund of that amount. Because they filed a joint return claiming the American opportunity credit, they aren’t filing it only to get a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid. The exception to the joint return test doesn't apply, so this child isn't your qualifying child. Qualifying Child of More Than One Person . If your qualifying child isn't a qualifying child of anyone else, this topic doesn't apply to you and you don’t need to read about it. This is also true if your qualifying child isn't a qualifying child of anyone else except your spouse with whom you plan to file a joint return. . . If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules for children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) described earlier, see Applying the tiebreaker rules to divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) , later. . Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, generally only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit). The child tax credit, credit for other dependents, or additional child tax credit. Head of household filing status. The credit for child and dependent care expenses. The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits. The earned income credit. The other person can’t take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person can’t agree to divide these benefits between you. Tiebreaker rules. To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these five tax benefits, the following tiebreaker rules apply. For purposes of these tiebreaker rules, the term “parent” means a biological or adoptive parent of an individual. It doesn’t include a stepparent or foster parent unless that person has adopted the individual. If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent. If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents. If the parents don’t file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher AGI for the year. If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year. If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child. Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child. . You may be able to qualify for the earned income credit under the rules for taxpayers without a qualifying child if you have a qualifying child for the earned income credit who is claimed as a qualifying child by another taxpayer. For more information, see Pub. 596. . Example 1—Child lived with parent and grandparent. You and your 3-year-old child Jordan lived with your parent all year. You are 25 years old and unmarried, and your AGI is $9,000. Your parent's AGI is $15,000. Your child’s other parent didn't live with you or your child. You haven't signed Form 8332 (or a similar statement). Jordan is a qualifying child of both you and your parent because Jordan meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and your parent. However, only one of you can claim Jordan. Your child isn't a qualifying child of anyone else, including Jordan’s other parent. You agree to let your parent claim Jordan. This means your parent can claim Jordan as a qualifying child for all of the five tax benefits listed earlier, if your parent qualifies for each of those benefits (and if you don’t claim Jordan as a qualifying child for any of those tax benefits). Example 2—Parent has higher AGI than grandparent. The facts are the same as in Example 1 , except your AGI is $18,000. Because your parent's AGI isn't higher than yours, your parent can’t claim Jordan. Only you can claim Jordan. Example 3—Two persons claim same child. The facts are the same as in Example 1 , except you and your parent both claim Jordan as a qualifying child. In this case, you, as the child's parent, will be the only one allowed to claim the child as a qualifying child. The IRS will disallow your parent's claim to the five tax benefits listed earlier based on Jordan. However, your parent may qualify for the earned income credit as a taxpayer without a qualifying child. Example 4—Qualifying children split between two persons. The facts are the same as in Example 1 , except you also have two other young children who are qualifying children of both you and your parent. Only one of you can claim each child. However, if your parent's AGI is higher than yours, you can allow your parent to claim one or more of the children. For example, if you claim one child, your parent can claim the other two. Example 5—Taxpayer who is a qualifying child. The facts are the same as in Example 1 , except you are only 18 years old and didn't provide more than half of your own support for the year. This means you are your parent's qualifying child. If your parent can claim you as a dependent, then you can’t claim your child as a dependent because of the Dependent Taxpayer Test , explained earlier, unless your parent files a return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid. Example 6—Separated parents. You, your spouse, and your 10-year-old child all lived in the United States for all of 2025. On August 1, 2025, your spouse moved out of the household. In August and September, your child lived with you. For the rest of the year, your child lived with your spouse, the child's other parent. Your child is a qualifying child of both you and your spouse because your child lived with each of you for m