OCR Text |
Show Your Federal Income Tax CREDIT FOR DEPENDENTS A taxpayer is entitled to a credit cre-dit for each person other than husband hus-band or wife whether related to htm or not, and whether living with h'm or not, who during the taxable tax-able year wa dependent upon and 'received his chief support from the taxpayer, provided the dependent depend-ent was either (a) under 18 years of age, or (b) Incapable of -self support sup-port because mentally or physically physical-ly defective. I The credit for dependents Is 1 ba ed upon Actu il Financial Dependency De-pendency and not mere legal de-j de-j pendency, it is not necessary that the dependent be related to the I taxpa.'i-r, but the taxpayer must have provided more than one-half of the support, or there is no dependency. de-pendency. The term "mentally or physically defective" includes not only those who are mentally afflicted and physically crippled, but alx persons per-sons who, by reason of old age or impaired health, are incapable ol self-support. The state of mental men-tal or ptyslcal defect need not be of a permanent nature, but if it existed for only a portion of the year, then the credit for depend-icnt depend-icnt can be claimed only for tha' portion of the year during which the dependent was supported by the taxpayer. , A person may not acquire a cre-j cre-j dit for dependent by reason of support sup-port of a person qualifying as a dependent if. as a result of such JsupporU, h acqurei a hrkd of family exemption, but may acquire a credit for dependent by reason o'. 1 additional persons qualifying as ; dependents, whom he supports. Thus, If a person claim; head of a i family exemption on account of .support of an aged mother or father. fa-ther. Incapable of elf-support or a child, he would not be entitled to a credit for such dependent; but if he supported more than one such person he could claim credit for such additional per ons provided they were under 18 years of age or incapable of self-support. I Credit for dependents may not ; be divided between two persons f 11-I 11-I Ing separate returns, but must be taken by the one contributing the chief :,upport. A credit for dependents depend-ents may be claimed by a father who provides the support for his children living with his divorced wife, if the support is provided as a result of a court decree or as the re ult of an agreement between husband and wife. The credit for dependent, allowable allow-able to a taxpayer filing on Form i 1049, Is $350. and Is proportionate I with the number of months of dependency. de-pendency. Thus, for a child born on July 1 the credit allowable would be $175 (for six months), and If a thlld became 18 years of age on July 1 the credit allowable would be $175 One-half a month or less h not counted as a month; more than one-half a month is counted as a month In calculatlg the credit. A credit of $385 for each dependent depend-ent on July 1 or the year Is allow able to a taxpayer using Simplified Form 1040A. |