Adoption and your taxes

[roxy]

First I'll start off by saying that I do plan to consult a tax professional, but I thought someone on here might have experience. So we finalized our adoption before the end of the year. I'm not sure if I can claim him as a dependent on my taxes since he only lived with us for 4 months. Prior to that he was living with his FM so my guess is that she will claim him as a dependent on her taxes. I think my question is can I claim him or not for 2015 taxes? Thanks!

[ceejay]

Related question... Does anyone know anything about foster children and taxes? Are we supposed to claim our foster sons as dependents? I didn't think we were since we aren't technically their legal guardians, but then I read something online that suggested otherwise and now I'm not sure which is correct.

[gnomesweetgnome]

Jan 11, 2016 10:40:27 GMT -5 roxy said:

First I'll start off by saying that I do plan to consult a tax professional, but I thought someone on here might have experience. So we finalized our adoption before the end of the year. I'm not sure if I can claim him as a dependent on my taxes since he only lived with us for 4 months. Prior to that he was living with his FM so my guess is that she will claim him as a dependent on her taxes. I think my question is can I claim him or not for 2015 taxes? Thanks!

Since he was a foster child and his previous family had him for more than 6m, they can claim him on their taxes. Not sure since the adoption was finalized before year end if itll be a race to see who files first & can claim him, but your tax prof should be able to help you figure that out.

[gnomesweetgnome]

Jan 11, 2016 10:58:30 GMT -5 ceejay said:

Related question... Does anyone know anything about foster children and taxes? Are we supposed to claim our foster sons as dependents? I didn't think we were since we aren't technically their legal guardians, but then I read something online that suggested otherwise and now I'm not sure which is correct.

If you have had them for 6m or longer, or more than half their life you can claim them as dependents. You don't include the stipend money in your earnings.

[roxy]

Jan 11, 2016 10:58:30 GMT -5 ceejay said:

Related question... Does anyone know anything about foster children and taxes? Are we supposed to claim our foster sons as dependents? I didn't think we were since we aren't technically their legal guardians, but then I read something online that suggested otherwise and now I'm not sure which is correct.

From my understanding you can claim them on your taxes if you provided care for them for at least 6 months and 1 day. My son's FM claimed him on her 2014 taxes and probably will for 2015 as well.

[ceejay]

Jan 11, 2016 11:05:26 GMT -5 gnomesweetgnome said:

Jan 11, 2016 10:58:30 GMT -5 ceejay said:

Related question... Does anyone know anything about foster children and taxes? Are we supposed to claim our foster sons as dependents? I didn't think we were since we aren't technically their legal guardians, but then I read something online that suggested otherwise and now I'm not sure which is correct.

If you have had them for 6m or longer, or more than half their life you can claim them as dependents. You don't include the stipend money in your earnings.

Thank you roxy and gnomesweetgnome!

So that makes it little tricky. Because we had the boys with us for just under 4 months in 2015, but our youngest FS is only 5 months old. So our 2-year-old FS wouldn't count as our dependent, but our 5-month-old would count since we've had him for more than half his life? So we just claim him but not our older FS?

[roxy]

Jan 11, 2016 11:04:36 GMT -5 gnomesweetgnome said:

Jan 11, 2016 10:40:27 GMT -5 roxy said:

First I'll start off by saying that I do plan to consult a tax professional, but I thought someone on here might have experience. So we finalized our adoption before the end of the year. I'm not sure if I can claim him as a dependent on my taxes since he only lived with us for 4 months. Prior to that he was living with his FM so my guess is that she will claim him as a dependent on her taxes. I think my question is can I claim him or not for 2015 taxes? Thanks!

Since he was a foster child and his precious family had him for more than 6m, they can claim him on their taxes. Not sure since the adoption was finalized before year end if itll be a race to see who files first & can claim him, but your tax prof should be able to help you figure that out.

Thank you gnomesweetgnome,

[chele]

Jan 11, 2016 10:58:30 GMT -5 ceejay said:

Related question... Does anyone know anything about foster children and taxes? Are we supposed to claim our foster sons as dependents? I didn't think we were since we aren't technically their legal guardians, but then I read something online that suggested otherwise and now I'm not sure which is correct.

As others have said, six months and one day, and you can claim your foster children. I had to ask my worker for their SSNs. Of course, mom claimed them as well so we had to send additional proof. And now we are being audited for the kids only so we have to send the same paperwork out again.