TV set is placed in your child's bedroom and thus it
would be considered support for that child. If you buy a $200 power lawn
mower for your 13-year-old child and the child is given the duty of keeping
the lawn trimmed then you cannot consider this support towards your 13 year
old child. Also, if you buy a car for your child and you register it in your
name, this cannot be considered support for your child. It does not matter
if you both drive the car equally or not.
You have not provided more than half of support when your
17-year-old son, using his own personal funds, buys a car for $4,500 and you
provide all the rest of your son's support - $4,000. You have neither
provided more than half of support when during the year, your son receives
$2,200 from the government under the GI Bill, he uses this amount for his
education and you provided the rest of his support - $2,000. Neither have
you provided more than half of the support when you and your brother each
provide 20% of your mother's support for the year and the remaining 60% of
her support is provided equally by two people who are not related to her.
You can claim an exemption under a multiple support
agreement for anyone even for individuals who are not related to you.
For instance, your father lives with you and receives 25% of his
support from social security, 40% from you, 24% from his brother (your
uncle), and 11% from a friend. Either you or your uncle can take the
exemption for your father if the other person signs a statement agreeing not
to take the exemption.
The person who agrees to take the exemption must
attach Form 2120, or a similar declaration, to his tax return and must
keep for his records the signed statements.
If the parents divorced or separated during the year and
the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial
parent is the one with whom the child lived with for the greater number
of nights during the rest of the year. A child is treated as living with
a parent for a night if the child sleeps at a parent's home, regardless
if the parent is present or not. The child is also treated as living with a
parent for nights that the child does not sleep at a parent's home as long
as he or she is in the company of the parent.
Most taxpayers have a choice of either taking a standard
deduction or itemizing their deductions. If you have a choice, you use
the method that gives you the lower tax, of course.
Some persons are not eligible for the standard deduction.
Your standard deduction is zero and you should itemize any deductions
your have if your filing status is married filing separate and your
spouse itemizes deductions on his or her tax return. If you are filing a tax
return for a short tax year because of a change in your annual accounting
period, then you cannot take the standard deduction. In addition, you cannot
take the standard deduction if you are a non-resident or dual-status alien
during the year.
If your itemized deductions are less than the amount of
your standard deduction, you can elect to itemize deductions on your
federal tax return rather than take the standard deduction. You can
also itemize your deductions if the tax benefit of being able to itemize
your deductions on your state tax return is greater than the tax benefit you
lose on your federal tax return by not taking the standard
