Your client claims a college sophomore as a dependent, mentions a Swiss savings account she "forgot" last year, and asks whether her injured-spouse refund got lost in the IRS letter she never opened. Three different rules, one intake form. This lesson maps the back half of preliminary work.
Two categories of dependent: qualifying child and qualifying relative. A person can be one but not both, and a person who is someone's qualifying child cannot be anyone else's qualifying relative.
Qualifying child uses five tests, RARSJ.
- Relationship: child, stepchild, eligible foster child, sibling, half-sibling, step-sibling, or any descendant (grandchild, nephew, niece)
- Age: under 19 at year-end, or under 24 and a full-time student for at least 5 months, or any age if permanently and totally disabled
- Residency: lived with the taxpayer for more than half the year. Temporary absences for school, medical care, military service, vacation count as time at home
- Support: the child did not provide more than half of her own support
Common mistakes
- Treating a 23-year-old full-time graduate student as failing the qualifying child age test. Wrong: the cap is under 24 for students, so a 23-year-old still qualifies. The gross-income test does NOT apply to qualifying children.
- Confusing injured spouse (Form 8379, refund offset by other spouse's debt) with innocent spouse (Form 8857, relief from joint deficiency). Different forms, different relief.
- Filing FBAR with the tax return. FBAR is FinCEN Form 114, filed electronically with FinCEN through the BSA system, not attached to Form 1040. Form 8938 is the one that attaches to 1040.
Bottom line
- Qualifying child mnemonic RARSJ: relationship, age (under 19, 24 if student, any age if disabled), residency over half the year, support, and joint-return restriction.
- Qualifying relative: gross income under $5,200 for 2025, and taxpayer provides over half the person's support.
- CTC $2,200 per qualifying child under 17 with SSN, up to $1,700 refundable as ACTC; phaseout begins $200,000 single / $400,000 MFJ at $50 per $1,000 MAGI. ODC $500 nonrefundable.
- AOC $2,500 max, 40% refundable, first four post-secondary years with half-time enrollment, on Form 8863. LLC $2,000 max nonrefundable, no degree or half-time requirement.
Exam shortcut
"Dependent under 17 with SSN" picks CTC $2,200. "Dependent over 17, or with ITIN" picks ODC $500. "Dependent over 17 in college, first 4 years" stacks ODC plus AOC. Lock that decision tree before exam day. Foreign-account question: aggregate value triggers FBAR at $10,000. Single resident Form 8938 at $50,000 year-end or $75,000 any time.
The full lesson (about 4,207 words, 28 min read) adds 2 worked examples, all 6 common mistakes, a self-check, free in the app.
Learning objectives
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