As to the requirement, it is still only MORE THAN 6 months according to the Form 1040 instructions on page 20, which has always been that way to my knowledge and I been doing taxes for more than 30 years. The only exception that I have seen in the tax code, to be considered as a qualified widow/widower, the foster child CAN’T count as a qualifying child for the purpose of the QW filing status, which is specifically stated on page 17 of the same set of instructions, under the subheading of Qualifying Widow(er) in paragraph (2).

Like Jeff said, this is normally spelt out in the Court Decree, which also means if it is the Non-custodian parent to get to claim the benefits (mainly the exemption, which is now eliminated with the Child Tax Credit increased with the increased portion being non-refundable for this replacement, the Child Tax Credit, and the Additional Child Tax Credit), a Form 8332 or substantially similar form has to be filled out. This law went into effect in 2009 because the IRS personnel had to spend hours pouring over the copies of divorce decrees and said enough was enough. As such, this form would greatly reduce the amount of time they would have to spend to determine who get what credits. This rule applies to any court decrees that took place AFTER the tax year of 2008.

Who is determined to be the non-custodian parent? One thing, how many nights did the child spend with each parent. Whichever parent the child spent the most nights with, that is the parent that is considered as the custodian parent. Only the custodian parent can claim the HOH (if not married, or is married, but considered as single for tax purposes; all the while also meeting the other requirements to claim the HOH filing status), Dependent Care Credit, and the EIC.

In the absence of the form 8332 or court decree (if it was prior to 2009), then it goes to the tie breaker rules. In regards to who gets to be considered the custodian parent, normally it would be the parent the child is with while the child is in school. However, if that isn’t good enough and it is so even steven, I would like to know how the IRS would treat the New Year’s Eve nights on both ends of the year given each of those two nights are technically only half of the night of those two nights in the same year.

Determining mental age of kids would be very difficult as there would be a lot of dispute, thus would make it very hard to be enforceable. As such, the regulations needs to have something more concrete, thus why we have the physical age to go by. I know this doesn’t really answer your question, but I hope you can see how this can be a real mess that would be very difficult to solve, which would had more of a mess to our court system.

Good for you. I know what it’s like too as I also did it including the fact I crammed 4 full years’ worth of education work into 28 months graduating in the top 10% of my class for both of my degrees, BBA and MS in Accounting. But then again, I was wrung through the money game of the higher education system to the point I essentially had to EARN 376.5 quarter credit hours (8.37 years’ worth) just to get my 4 year BBA degree costing me $200,000, all credits earned with the Accounting major with a minor in Information Systems. I then earned another 51 quarter credit hours to get my MS in Accounting costing me $27,000.

Had I not pushed it as hard as I did, I would have ran through the maximum of 6 years of Pell Grant prior to getting my degree, but rather the last semester I was able to get the Pell Grant was also the last semester I needed to get my BBA in Accounting.

I had already earned 286 quarter credit hours prior to dropping out the first time, which all I had was an Associate degree in Accounting from a college that no longer exist (Cincinnati Metropolitan College), which I earned that degree within 15 months while I went through 2 phases of medical testing and had the laser brain surgery done to be rid of the seizures permanently (ever so grateful for it as it was not only a life changer for the good, but also a life saver as those things were only progressively getting worse and worse to eventually kill me off if I didn’t qualify for the surgery and have it done), then also did 20 hours a week COOP for 10 weeks as was required by the 2 year program. I attended from January 7th, 1991 to March 19th, 1992 earning the 93 quarter credit hours with an overall GPA of 3.87 on a 4.0 scale. 80% of that course material was repeat from what I had in high school.

When I went back to college after having been out of college for 16 years, and only because the plant I worked at was shut down by the parent corporation, and I didn’t land on any other employment, I felt I had to go back to college to finish out my degree in Accounting, though I hated the idea because of the money game of the higher education system. I earned 90.5 quarter credit hours between September 21st, 2011 and December 11th, 2012 for the BBA pulling an overall 3.88 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Not only that, but I was the most outstanding BAP member in 2011 for bringing and running the FSA version of the VITA program to the college as per the suggestion of one of my connections at the EITC program in Price Hill neighborhood area of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Still not landing on any other employment, I went on and worked on my MS in Accounting while also raising a family of 7 (5 girls, my wife and myself). On the one had, you would say I went about average pace for completing my 34 semester credit hours (51 quarter credit hours) within the year of 2013, but add to it, I worked on and passed all 4 CPA exams within a single 6 month window, which 4 of those 6 months, I was a full-time student working on my MS in Accounting. Of the 141.5 quarter credit hours I earned at University of Cincinnati, 74.5 of those hours were repeat of prior courses including 75% of the senior level college course of Accounting Information System being repeat of what I had in high school at Genesee Area Skill Center for the 2-year Accounting program that specialized in information systems. The only difference there were between the 2, the high school one focused more on the computer side and less on the direct threats against the system vs the college course 22 years later focused more on the paper side and the direct threats against the system.

As to working and going to school, I was also working as a TA/GA in International Business at University of Cincinnati (about 10 hours per week), tutoring other students (mostly in Accounting), and I was also doing some work for another person dealing with train models about 15 hours per week. Therefore, if you add in my TA work, tutoring, work outside of school, volunteer time (4 hours per week running the FSA site during tax season), participating in the BAP program (4 hours per week) while carrying on a course load that ranged between 15 and 20 credit hours per term, and still taking care of my family, that’s a lot too. I felt though I had to get through ASAP but only come out with the documents. The dates and results of my CPA exams are as follows (AUD exam: 8/12/2013, scored 75; BEC exam: 8/27/2013, scored 88; REG exam: 1/3/2014, scored 75; FAR exam: 2/1/2014, scored 87). As to the FAR exam, not only did I score high on it compared to most people, I only spent 1 hour and 22 minutes on it out of the full 4 hours given to take the 4 part exam. The FAR and BEC exams, I wasn’t the least bit concerned about passing them. It was mainly the AUD and REG exams. As to the AUD, I spent a lot of time preparing for that exam (2.5 months as compared to 2 weeks for the BEC exam). The other exam I was a bit concerned about was the Regulation exam because of the social and monetary stuff in that exam, but figured it was going to be my tax knowledge that would pull me through that exam, which is exactly what happened. I did only give myself 3 weeks time to prepare for it after the graduation of my MS in Accounting, that included Christmas and NYD, but given I had both business law courses and one of the tax courses in that last term for my MS, I figured that would also help me be prepared for that exam, which was true to some extent.

As to having the IRS split the benefits between both parents filing separately, I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon as that can get really messy in so many ways. As to spending way more than $2,000, I agree with you, but think about this, the idea is that the IRS isn’t to tax you on what it takes to provide support for the kids, so if you are in the 12% marginal tax bracket, then that $2,000 would really be more like an additional earned income of about $16,667 before you would start to have a tax bill by the IRS.

The biggest question I get is why did Congress limit the age to 16 instead of 17 given 17 year olds are also minors. While I don’t truly have an answer to that question, I suspect it’s because 17 year olds has some flexibility that 16 year olds can’t do though they still can’t do things as an 18 year old (in most states depending on the age that the state they are in are considered as at the age of majority as a few of them consider either the age of 19 or 21 as the minimum age of majority).

In regards to the itemization of gambling losses, that is still deductible on the federal level, though be sure to check if it is on the state level or not, as some states like Ohio doesn’t allow for such deductions, thus really hurts you in that manner.

For the federal level, the issue you have isn’t as much about the gambling losses not being deductible, but rather in that you must claim the total winnings BEFORE AGI, and then you claim the gambling losses only to the extent of gambling winnings on the Schedule A (still allowed even in 2018 and beyond) which is an AFTER AGI deduction. However, because of the gambling winnings increasing the AGI without the benefit of the decrease of gambling losses before AGI, the increased AGI may very well hurt you in other ways given many of the credits are phased out based on filing status and MAGI (Modified AGI that not only include the AGI, but also includes the non-taxable earned interest)

To determine the part of the Child Tax Credit that is refundable, there’s a series of steps to be taken

First, you need to work you way down to the point you determine your tax based on your filing status and taxable income on the 1040 form.

From there, you deduct all non-refundable credits including up to 60% of the AOC credit (if you have at least one person in the tax household in college working towards their first bachelor’s degree and have not used the tax credit or it’s predecessor tax credit for any 4 prior tax years, which the credit is worth up to $2,500 for the first $4,000 of qualified higher education expenses spent for an undergrad degree at a qualified higher education institution; as the other 40% of the credit is refundable).

As to the Child Tax Credit, the first $600 credit (the non-refundable portion) is essentially as a replacement for the Exemption Deduction that was taken away, which is also true for anyone that is NOT qualified for the CTC but is still considered as an exemption for the taxpayer (and spouse if MFJ), thus is a non-refundable $500 credit.

As to the $1,400 refundable portion, the $400 bump in the refundable portion is essentially serving as taking inflation into account since 2003 when the Child Tax Credit was first put into place.

Let’s just say you had a $0 tax bill prior to the lines dealing with other taxes (i.e., 10% penalty for early withdrawal without meeting one of the exceptions, 20% penalty for withdrawal from the HSA for expenses other than UNREIMBURSED qualified medical expenses, household employment tax, unpaid social security and medicare taxes, and the 15.3% self-employment FICA taxes with the employer half of it as deductible before AGI), you have 4 kids under the age of 16 that qualifies for the Child Tax Credit, thus the most you can get is a refundable credit of $5,600.

However, to determine if you can get that $5,600, you must first subtract $2,500 from your total earned income, then multiply the result by 15%. If this result is lower than the $5,600, then you get the lower result as a refundable credit, else you get the $5,600 as a refundable credit for the Additional Child Tax Credit.

Example, your Earned Income is $25,000

$25,000 – $2,500 = $22,500

$22,500 * 15% = $3,375

As such, your refundable credit for the Additional Child Tax Credit in this case is $3,375, since this is lower than the $5,600 maximum potential for the Additional Child Tax Credit.

Hi Meagan – The only way to know for sure is the file your return and see how it turns out. The changes are brand-new, and you have to go with however it flows on your return.