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If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules for children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart), described earlier, see Applying this special rule to divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart), later. Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Al­ though the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit). 1. The exemption for the child. 2. The child tax credit. 3. Head of household filing status. 4. The credit for child and dependent care expenses. 5. The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits. 6. The earned income credit. The other person cannot take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person cannot agree to divide these tax benefits between you. The other person cannot take any of these benefits for a child unless he or she has a different quali­ fying child. Tiebreaker rules. To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these six tax benefits, the following tiebreaker rules apply. If only one of the persons is the child's pa­ rent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent. If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents. If the parents do not file a joint return to­ gether but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qual­ ifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year. If no parent can claim the child as a quali­ fying child, the child is treated as the quali­ fying child of the person who had the high­ est AGI for the year. If a parent can claim the child as a qualify­ ing child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child. If the child's parents file a joint return with each other, this rule can be applied by di­ viding the parents' combined AGI equally between the parents. See Example 6. CAUTION ! Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child. Example 1—child lived with parent and grandparent. You and your 3­year­old daugh­ ter Jane lived with your mother all year. You are 25 years old, unmarried, and your AGI is $9,000. Your mother's AGI is $15,000. Jane's father did not live with you or your daughter. You have not signed Form 8832 (or a similar statement) to release the child's exemption to the noncustodial parent. Jane is a qualifying child of both you and your mother because she meets the relation­ ship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and your mother. However, only one of you can claim her. Jane is not a qualifying child of anyone else, including her fa­ ther. You agree to let your mother claim Jane. This means your mother can claim Jane as a qualifying child for all of the six tax benefits lis­ ted earlier, if she qualifies for each of those ben­ efits (and if you do not claim Jane as a qualify­ ing child for any of those tax benefits). Example 2—parent has higher AGI than grandparent. The facts are the same as in Ex- ample 1 except your AGI is $18,000. Because your mother's AGI is not higher than yours, she cannot claim Jane. Only you can claim Jane. Example 3—two persons claim same child. The facts are the same as in Example 1 except you and your mother both claim Jane as a qualifying child. In this case, you, as the child's parent, will be the only one allowed to claim Jane as a qualifying child. The IRS will disallow your mother's claim to the six tax bene­ fits listed earlier unless she has another qualify­ ing child. Example 4—qualifying children split be- tween two persons. The facts are the same as in Example 1 except you also have two other young children who are qualifying children of both you and your mother. Only one of you can claim each child. However, if your mother's AGI is higher than yours, you can allow your mother to claim one or more of the children. For exam­ ple, if you claim one child, your mother can claim the other two. Example 5—taxpayer who is a qualifying child. The facts are the same as in Example 1 except you are only 18 years old and did not provide more than half of your own support for the year. This means you are your mother's qualifying child. If she can claim you as a de­ pendent, then you cannot claim your daughter as a dependent because of the Dependent Tax- payer Test explained earlier. Example 6—child lived with both pa- rents and grandparent. The facts are the same as in Example 1 except you are married to your daughter's father. The two of you live with your daughter and your mother and have AGI of $20,000 on a joint return. If you and your husband do not claim your daughter as a quali­ fying child, your mother can claim her instead. Even though the AGI on your joint return, $20,000, is more than your mother's AGI of $15,000, for this purpose each parent's AGI can be treated as $10,000, so your mother's $15,000 AGI is treated as higher than the AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child. Example 7—separated parents. You, your husband, and your 10­year­old son lived together until August 1, 2014, when your hus­ band moved out of the household. In August and September, your son lived with you. For the rest of the year, your son lived with your hus­ band, the boy's father. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and your husband because your son lived with each of you for more than half the year and because he met the relation­ ship, age, support, and joint return tests for both of you. At the end of the year, you and your hus­ band still were not divorced, legally separated, or separated under a written separation agree­ ment, so the rule for children of divorced or sep­ arated parents (or parents who live apart) does not apply. You and your husband will file separate re­ turns. Your husband agrees to let you treat your son as a qualifying child. This means, if your husband does not claim your son as a qualify­ ing child, you can claim your son as a qualifying child for the dependency exemption, child tax credit, and exclusion for dependent care bene­ fits (assuming you otherwise qualify for each of those tax benefits). However, you cannot claim head of household filing status because you and your husband did not live apart for the last 6 months of the year. As a result, your filing sta­ tus is married filing separately, so you cannot claim the earned income credit or the credit for child and dependent care expenses. Example 8—separated parents claim same child. The facts are the same as in Ex- ample 7 except you and your husband both claim your son as a qualifying child. In this case, only your husband will be allowed to treat your son as a qualifying child. This is because, dur­ ing 2014, the boy lived with him longer than with you. If you claimed an exemption or the child tax credit for your son, the IRS will disallow your claim to both these tax benefits. If you do not have another qualifying child or dependent, the IRS will also disallow your claim to the exclu­ sion for dependent care benefits. In addition, because you and your husband did not live apart for the last 6 months of the year, your hus­ band cannot claim head of household filing sta­ tus. As a result, his filing status is married filing separately, so he cannot claim the earned in­ come credit or the credit for child and depend­ ent care expenses. Example 9—unmarried parents. You, your 5­year­old son, and your son's father lived together all year. You and your son's father are not married. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and his father because he meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and his father. Your AGI is $12,000 and your son's father's AGI is $14,000. Your son's father agrees to let you claim the child as a qualifying child. This means you can claim him as a qualifying child for the dependency exemption, child tax credit, head of household filing status, credit for child and dependent care expenses, exclusion for de­ pendent care benefits, and the earned income Publication 501 (2014) Page 17