Question

Which taxpayer is potentially eligible to receive the Child Tax Credit? In each scenario, the child mentioned is the taxpayer's only dependent or potential dependent, and the taxpayer provided more than half the child's support.

A. Abigail has a daughter, Malena, who is 7 years old at the end of 2019. Malena lived in Mexico for all of 2019 and is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien.

B. Lucia has a niece, Alejandra, who was 9 years old at the end of 2019. Alejandra is not a citizen of the United States. Alejandra does have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), and she lived in Mexico for all of 2019.

C. Ian has a nephew, Dylan, who is a resident alien. Dylan was 16 years old at the end of 2019. Dylan lived with Ian all year. Dylan obtained a social security number valid for employment before the due date of the return.

D. Perry has a son, Ryan, who was 17 years old at the end of 2019. Ryan is a citizen of the United States and qualifies as a dependent on Perry's 2019 tax return.

Answer 1

As per the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), following are the major eligibility criteria for claiming a Child Tax Credit:

• The child must be under the age of 17 years (i.e. 16 years or younger) on the last day of the tax year, usually December 31.
• The child must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national or a U.S. resident alien.
• The child must be the taxpayer's daughter, son, step-child, adopted child. They can also be the taxpayer's brother, sister, step-brother, step-sister, half-brother or half-sister and can also include his/her grandchildren, nephews or neices.
• The taxpayer must have provided half of the dependent child's financial support during the tax year.
• The child must also have lived with the person claiming the Child Tax credit for more than of the year.
• The taxpayer has claimed the child as their dependent on their Federal Tax return.
• The taxpayer who is eligible to claim this credit must list the name and Social Security number for each dependent on his/her tax return.

Among the four scenarios in the above question, the taxpayer in scenario C (i.e. Ian) is only eligible for a Child tax credit because Dylan, Ian's nephew, has fulfilled all the eligibility criteria as mentioned below:

• Dylan is the nephew of Ian
• Dylan is U.S. resident alien
• At the end of 2019, Dylan was 16 years old (i.e. less than 17 years)
• Dylan has also lived with Ian all the year (minimum requirement is half of the year)
• Lastly, Dylan has also obtained a social security number.

The child in the other 3 options/scenarios couldn't pass the eligibility criteria.

Scenario A. Malena is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien.

Scenario B. Alejandra is not a U.S. resident and doesn't even have ITIN

Scenario D. Ryan was 17 years old at the end of year 2019. (it should have been less than 16 years old)