Did the IRS reject your tax return because someone else claimed your dependent?
Claiming a dependent is usually pretty simple: you give the IRS their social security number, certifying that your relationship with that person satisfies a few simple rules.
Things can get more complicated, especially if someone else also claims the same person as a dependent. If they file their return first, the IRS will assume it’s legitimate and award them the full tax benefit of the dependent. When you attempt to e-file your return, it will be rejected.
The process is fairly straightforward. After your e-filed return has been rejected because someone else claimed the same dependent, you need to file a paper return. You can still prepare your return online. Instead of e-filing, you will need to print it out, sign it, and mail it to the IRS.
With your return, include a cover letter explaining your situation to the IRS as well as evidence proving that you have the right to claim the dependent (ie: medical records, school records, etc.).
The IRS will then review both returns claiming that dependent and determine which person should be claiming the dependent based on tax law.
The first thing to do is to make sure that you actually can claim the person in question as a dependent. There are two types of dependents, qualifying children and qualifying relatives, and both have different requirements.
Criteria for claiming a qualifying child
In order to claim someone as a qualifying child, he or she must
- Be your biological or adopted child, stepchild, foster child, sibling, half sibling, step-sibling, or a descendant of one of these
- Be under age 19, under age 24 if a full-time student, or any age if permanently and totally disabled
- Remain a U.S. citizen or resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico
- Not be married, or be married but not filing a joint return
- Have lived with you for at least half the year.
- Not have provided more than half of his or her own support
Criteria for claiming a qualifying relative
In order to claim someone as a qualifying relative, he or she must
- Have lived with you all year as a member of your household, or be one of the following family members: child, parent, sibling, stepparent, stepchild, step-sibling, half sibling, grandparent, grandchild, child-in-law, parent-in-law, sibling-in-law, uncle, aunt, niece, or nephew.
- Remain a U.S. citizen or resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico
- Not be married, or be married but not filing a joint return
- Not be a qualifying child of you or someone else
- Have a gross income of less than $4,000
- Have more than half of their total support for the year provided by you
When you sent your cover letter and evidence along with your return, you should strive to prove that you satisfy all of the requirements for the type of dependent that you are trying to claim.
Can I find out who claimed my dependent?
The IRS can’t tell you who else has claimed the dependent for several reasons. One is that since they don’t know who made the right claim, they don’t want to violate the privacy of someone who really is claiming their own child. Another is that there’s always the potential for mistakes, and it doesn’t make much sense to punish someone for accidentally writing a “4” that looks like a “9” when copying a Social Security number.
What if two people both meet the requirements to claim a dependent?
If two different people both have the right to claim the dependent according to the criteria listed above, the IRS will generally award the dependent to the person with whom the dependent lived for the greatest amount of time during the tax year. If the dependent lived with both people for an equal amount of time, then the IRS will award the dependent to the taxpayer with the higher AGI.
Why dependents require a Social Security number
For a while, dependents didn’t require a Social Security number at all. The IRS used to take taxpayers’ word for it when they claimed dependents. But in 1987, the rule changed to require taxpayers to give a Social Security number for every dependent they claimed. And suddenly, seven million dependents disappeared. Many of them were probably due to misunderstandings: two divorced parents each claiming all of their kids, for example. But others could have been due to shady behavior, including claiming children while knowing someone else would claim them, or even fabricating dependents entirely.
Prevent this in the future
The problem can be solved by mailing in a paper return. But how do you prevent this from happening in future years? The IRS is working to improve its safeguards against tax fraud and identity theft, but these aren’t perfect. The best thing you can do to prevent someone else from claiming your dependent is to file your taxes as early as possible. That way your e-filed return will be accepted and theirs will be rejected. You’ll get your refund on time and they will be required to prove they meet the dependent criteria.
Some food for thought
In situations like the ones discussed above, there tends to be emotion involved from both parties. The IRS is required to base all final decisions solely on tax law. When dealing with the IRS, it is most productive to stick to the facts. This will save you time and stress.
My brother has been living with me for the past year, paying my bills and supporting my children because I am going to school and have not worked. One of my children’s fathers has never seen them and doesn’t work or pay child support so he can’t claim them, the other pays $60 a month but he is on SSI and can’t file taxes plus he has a no contact order with my children. He has lived with me but is not on the lease; however, there are bills in his name such as the cable/internet etc. and he pays everything. I allowed him to claim my 3 children this year because he has supported them but when he checked the status of his return it said the following:
Take Action.
We have received your tax return and it is being reviewed. You will receive a notice from us requesting additional information within 30 calendar days. You may not receive all or part of your refund until we receive and review the information we requested. If you need more information after you receive our notice, call the number on the notice.
Please do not contact us until you have received the notice as we are unable to take any action until then.
I can prove my children live here and can show that my brother has bills and stuff in his name here and that he is related to them but other then that have no concrete proof that he lives here because he’s not on my lease. Should this be enough to satisfy the IRS’s inquiry so that he can get his refund? Was he legally allowed to claim my children? I was sure that he was.
Hi Brandy,
Your brother can claim your children as a qualifying relative if he meet the following requirements;
-The dependents cannot be a qualifying child of another taxpayer.
– The dependents earns less than the personal exemption amount during the year. For 2013, this means the dependent earns less than $3,900.
– He provides more than half of the dependent’s total support during the year.
-He is related to the dependents
-The dependent must be a citizen or resident alien of the United States, Canada, or Mexico.
As long as he can prove these above requirements, he should be fine. He can provide that he provides more than half of the dependents support during the year through the bills and expenses he pays for.
Hello my sister is trying to claim her son but it came back saying someone already claimed him but she don’t know is there a number she can call to find out who claimed him
Please and thank you
Hi,
She can not find out who claimed him. However, as this article says, she will have to file a paper return to the IRS with an included cover letter explaining the situation and evidence proving she has the right to claim the child.
After the IRS receives the mailed return, cover letter and evidence, they will review to see who deserves to claim the dependent. If two people have the right to claim a dependent, IRS will generally award the dependent to the person with whom the dependent lived for the greatest amount of time during the tax year.
Hi,
My boyfriend’s wife left him in July 2013, for the entire year he was the main support of the household, they have 4 children. He has been paying child support since then as well. He tried to e-file his tax returns for 2013 and claim 2 of the children as dependents but came back that he couldn’t. We are not sure if that their mother claim all of them or she gave 2 of the kids to someone else. Maybe she put a block on their social security numbers. Please advise asap. Thank you!!!
Hi Tatiana,
This is a common issue with many people. As this article says, he will have to file a paper return to the IRS. That means he will mail his printed return to the IRS. Also, he will have to include a cover letter explaining the situation and evidence proving he has the right to claim the children.
After the IRS receives the mailed return, cover letter and evidence, they will review to see who deserves to claim the dependents. If two people have the right to claim a dependent, IRS will generally award the dependent to the person with whom the dependent lived for the greatest amount of time during the tax year.
To help, when sending the return, evidence and cover letter to the IRS, be sure to prove and explain the requirements are met to claim the dependents (the dependents lives with him, is his children, he provide more than have their support, and the children makes under $3900/yr).
I have 2 sons that live with me all year. When their father & I seperated we had an agreement written up that we each claim one child. At that time he bothered & lived in the same school district. 3 years ago he stopped bothering. He sees them maybe 10 weekends out of the year. I claimed them that last 3 years. In 2013 he finally started working & went and claimed my son (if we go by our custody agreement, he claimed the wrong child.) I spoke with the IRS and even with our agreement stating he claims one/ I claim other they still said I am entitled to claim both. I went to claim and got denied because he had already filed. My question is just to make sure what both the tax representative & the irs are correct that as long as I can prove they both live with me (which I can) that it’ll over rule the custody agreement? I know my next steps, just wanted to double check.
Hi Nicole,
Yes, that is correct. Whoever the dependent lives with for the most time during the tax year is the person who can claim the dependent.
hi so i made a mistake by uploading previous documents when filing my taxes this year and i am not supposed to claim my daughter this year instead the mother gets to per legal agreement even tho our daughter does live with me most of the year… anyways i e-filed and then 2 days later her mother is asking me for her information so she can file taxes and claim her, i check mine and see that i have already claimed her since i had the previous year and all the information remained the same from previous years taxes.. is there anything and if so what can i do to fix this without having the irs all up in my business?
Hi there,
If the tax return has already been accepted by the IRS, you’ll have to file an amended return, form 1040x. On the amended return, you will note the changes from the first return you filed. It’s good to know though, it takes the IRS up to 16 weeks to process amended returns.