Can I claim my brother as dependent when we live with our parents?

Legend: Can I claim my brother as dependent when we live with our parents?
My brother is 19, attends school, doesn’t/didn’t make any income.
My dad’s income is too low to provide full support for 3 persons. So I pay support for my brother. Also, I made more than what my dad made in 2007.
Tax accountant said me and my dad both can claim my brother. Is that true?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Tim
Tax accountanat is WRONG. Only ONE person can claim a dependant!

Get another tax accountant.

Answer by Dr. Ima G. Neus
Wrongo!!

Answer by crazyguyintx
No. Your tax accountant is a quack or a scumbag.

Answer by jphillip28
Only one can claim someone as the dependant, even if you make more my guess is that your father should be the one that claims your brother.

Answer by sun_shinevt
That accountant is wrong. Only 1 person can claim a dependent! If you try to claim 2 the IRS will come after you & send your tax stuff back telling you that the dependent was already claimed by somebody else.

Answer by [email protected]
NOPE, you don’t understand. Either of you may be entitled to claim him, but ONLY one of you CAN claim him. The one who provides more than half his support for more than half the year. Who pays for house/apartment? Who pays utilities? Who pays food. There are worksheets in IRS docs to figure out whether you provided his support and can claim him. ONLY one person in your household can claim HOH, the others claim Single, but can still get EIC if income levels are apropriate.

Answer by MG@cybtaxes
Tim’s right that no more than one person can claim another as a dependent. It MAY be the accountant meant either one of you (but not both) could claim your brother as a dependent.

If brother is a full-time student (for 5+ months in 2007) and does not pay for more than half of his own support, then Dad or you (as both of you lived with him for more than half the year) can claim him. If you both want to claim him and cannot agree which of you should do so, Dad will win under the IRS tie-breaker rules as he’s the parent. Remember that Dad is providing shelter to your brother (fair market value of rent and utilities…food) and that, just like cash, counts as support by another.

It really doesn’t matter who provides the greater amt of support so long as brother is not supporting himself by half or more.

Hope this helps.

Answer by bostonianinmo
MG@cybtaxes has provided the only correct answer so far. I had started on this before his was posted but since it’s already posted I’ll leave it.

There appears to be a communications disconnect here. While both you and your father are ELIGIBLE to claim your brother under the Qualifying Child rule, only ONE of you may claim him. This is what your tax accountant must have meant; only the greenest neophyte would get this one wrong.

In this situation you should figure your taxes both ways and file whichever way works out best for the family unit as a whole.

Additionally if YOU paid more than half of the cost of maintaining the home then you may also file as Head of Household filing status.

Depending upon your income you may also be able to claim the EIC. This is probably true for your Dad as well, so you should run the numbers together and see what works best over all.

Answer by Doctor Deth
your tax accountant is an idiot – any one person can only be claimed once – and if you father gets no benefit from claiming him, what’s the point? either on their own return of the one by a person who provides at least 50% support. Is your father planning on claiming you? You probably make too much for him to do that, especially if you are claiming your brother.

Answer by Judy
That’s a really poor excuse for a tax accountant if he really said you can both claim your brother. It sounds like EITHER of you can, but not both. Two people can never claim the same dependent.