Disabled dependent

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 10, 2025
1 reply
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My 30 yr old son who lives with me worked for the first 3 months of the year and them was diagnosed with a mental health disability and can no longer work. How can i claim him as a disabled adult dependent- he is in the process of getting ssdi

SharonD007

The IRS states to prove your child's disability, get a letter from their doctor, healthcare provider or any social service program or agency that can verify their disability.

Review the IRS website: Disability and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for more information.

If you son meets the qualifying requirements of a qualifying child or a qualifying relative, then you can claim him as a dependent. Below you will find the basic qualifiers:

To determine if your son is your qualifying child, the following questions must be true:

The child must be related to you.
The child can’t be claimed as a dependent by someone else.
The child must be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, national, or a Canadian or Mexican resident.
If the child is married, they can’t file a joint return with their spouse.
The child must be under the age of 19 (or 24 for full-time students).
- No age limit for permanently and totally disabled children.
The child must have lived with you for more than half the year (exceptions apply).
The child didn't provide more than half of their own support for the year.

If your son meets the qualifications of your qualifying child, his income doesn't matter.

If your son doesn’t qualify as your qualifying child, you may be able to claim him as your qualifying relative. The following questions must be true:

The individual can’t be claimed as a dependent by someone else.
The individual must be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, national, or a Canadian or Mexican resident.
If the individual is married, they can’t file a joint return with their spouse.
The individual must live with you all year.
The individual can’t have made more than $5,050 in income in 2024.
You must provide more than half of their total support for the year.

Please review the TurboTax Help article Who can I claim as my dependent?

Review the IRS website Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Child) to determine if you provided more than half of your child's support.

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Sloatmtn2Author

Unfortunately he made over $5k in the first 3 months of the year and wasn’t diagnosed with a disability until September- even though he stopped working in march. Seems very unfair to folks in this particular situation that there is no flexibility or leniency with the standard rules

DianeW777

It can be confusing so review the information here before you reach a final decision.

As indicated by our Tax Expert @SharonD007, your qualifying child has no age limit if they are considered permanently and totally disabled. This also means their income is not important if they did not provide more than half of their own support. You can use the dependency support worksheet in the link below to see if you do actually qualify to claim your disabled son. Work through it and keep in mind that any amount put into savings (and left there) is not considered as used for support.