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Medical insurance benefits. Medical in- surance benefits, including basic and supple- mentary Medicare benefits, aren't part of sup- port. Tuition payments and allowances under the GI Bill. Amounts veterans receive under the GI Bill for tuition payments and allowances while they attend school are included in total support. Example. During the year, your child re- ceives $2,200 from the government under the GI Bill. Your child uses this amount for your child’s education. You provide the rest of your child’s support—$2,000. Because GI benefits are included in total support, your child’s total support is $4,200 ($2,200 + $2,000). You haven't provided more than half of your child’s support. Childcare expenses. If you pay someone to provide child or dependent care, you can in- clude these payments in the amount you provi- ded for the support of your child or disabled de- pendent, even if you claim a credit for the payments. For information on the credit, see Pub. 503. Other support items. Other items may be considered as support depending on the facts in each case. Don't Include in Total Support The following items aren't included in total sup- port. 1. Federal, state, and local income taxes paid by persons from their own income. 2. Social security and Medicare taxes paid by persons from their own income. 3. Life insurance premiums. 4. Funeral expenses. 5. Scholarships received by your child if your child is a student. 6. Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance payments used for the support of the child who receives them. Multiple Support Agreement Sometimes no one provides more than half of the support of a person. Instead, two or more persons, each of whom would be able to claim the person as a dependent but for the support test, together provide more than half of the per- son's support. When this happens, you can agree that any one of you who individually provides more than 10% of the person's support, but only one, can claim that person as a dependent. Each of the others must sign a statement agreeing not to claim the person as a dependent for that year. The person who claims the person as a de- pendent must keep these signed statements for their own records. A multiple support declara- tion identifying each of the others who agreed not to claim the person as a dependent must be attached to the return of the person claiming the person as a dependent. Form 2120, Multiple Support Declaration, can be used for this pur- pose. You can claim someone as a dependent un- der a multiple support agreement for someone related to you or for someone who lived with you all year as a member of your household. Example 1. You, and your siblings, S, B, and D, provide the entire support of your parent for the year. You provide 45%, S provides 35%, B and D each provide 10%. Either you or S can claim your parent as a dependent; the one who doesn’t must sign a statement agreeing not to claim your parent as a dependent. The one who claims your parent as a dependent must attach Form 2120, or a similar declaration, to their re- turn and must keep the statement signed by the other for their records. Because neither B nor D provides more than 10% of the support, neither can claim your parent as a dependent and nei- ther has to sign a statement. Example 2. You and your sibling each pro- vide 20% of your parent's support for the year. The remaining 60% of your parent’s support is provided equally by two persons who are unre- lated. Your parent doesn't live with them. Be- cause more than half of your parent’s support is provided by persons who can't claim your pa- rent as a dependent, no one can claim your pa- rent as a dependent. Example 3. Your parent lives with you and receives 25% of their support from social secur- ity, 40% from you, 24% from a relative, and 11% from a friend. Either you or the relative can claim your parent as a dependent if the other signs a statement agreeing not to. The one who claims your parent as a dependent must attach Form 2120, or a similar declaration, to your pa- rent’s return and must keep for your parent’s re- cords the signed statement from the one agree- ing not to claim your parent as a dependent. Support Test for Children of Divorced or Separated Parents (or Parents Who Live Apart) In most cases, a child of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) will be a qualifying child of one of the parents. See Chil- dren of divorced or separated parents (or pa- rents who live apart) under Qualifying Child, earlier. However, if the child doesn't meet the requirements to be a qualifying child of either parent, the child may be a qualifying relative of one of the parents. In that case, the following rules must be used in applying the support test. A child who doesn’t meet the requirements to be a qualifying child of either parent will be treated as the qualifying relative of the child’s noncustodial parent if all four of the following statements are true. 1. The parents: a. Are divorced or legally separated un- der a decree of divorce or separate maintenance; b. Are separated under a written separa- tion agreement; or c. Lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year, whether or not they are or were married. 2. The child received over half of the child’s support for the year from the parents (and the rules on multiple support agreements, explained earlier, don't apply). 3. The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half of the year. 4. Either of the following statements is true. a. The custodial parent signs a written declaration, discussed later, that they won't claim the child as a dependent for the year, and the noncustodial pa- rent attaches this written declaration to their return. (If the decree or agree- ment went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, see Post-1984 and pre-2009 divorce decree or separa- tion agreement, later. If the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008, see Post-2008 divorce decree or sep- aration agreement, later.) b. A pre-1985 decree of divorce or sepa- rate maintenance or written separa- tion agreement that applies to 2022 states that the noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent, the decree or agreement wasn't changed after 1984 to say the non- custodial parent can't claim the child as a dependent, and the noncustodial parent provides at least $600 for the child's support during the year. Custodial parent and noncustodial parent. The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the year. The other parent is the noncus- todial parent. The term “parent” means a biolog- ical or adoptive parent of an individual. It doesn’t include a stepparent or foster parent unless that person has adopted the individual. 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 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 that parent's home, whether or not the parent is present; or • In the company of the parent, when the child doesn't sleep at a parent's home (for example, the parent and child are on vaca- tion together). Equal number of nights. If the child lived with each parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is the pa- rent with the higher AGI. December 31. The night of December 31 is treated as part of the year in which it begins. For example, the night of December 31, 2022, is treated as part of 2022. Emancipated child. If a child is emancipa- ted under state law, the child is not under the custody of either parent and time lived with a parent after emancipation does not count for purposes of determining who is the custodial parent. Publication 501 (2022) Page 21