ACCY 312 Chap.5 Dependents and Filing Status
Dependents and Filing Status
Why dependents come first
Whether someone is a dependent decides the filing status and eligibility for benefits including the American opportunity credit and the child tax credit. A dependent must be a U.S. citizen or live in the United States, Canada or Mexico, and must not file a joint return.
There are two routes: qualifying child and qualifying relative.
The qualifying child tests
A qualifying child must pass all four tests, which the course abbreviates RARS. Relationship: a child or descendant of a child, or a sibling or a sibling's descendant.
Age: younger than the taxpayer and either below 19 at year-end, or below 24 if enrolled full time, with no limit for someone permanently and totally disabled. Residence: sharing the taxpayer's home for over half the year, where temporary absences such as time at college count as time at home.
Support: the child must pay for no more than half of their own support, and scholarships are generally not counted as the child's own support. When more than one taxpayer could claim a child, tiebreakers favour the parent the child lived with longest, then the taxpayer with the higher AGI.
The qualifying relative tests
Someone who is not anyone's qualifying child can still be a qualifying relative.
The relationship test is broader: family members qualify, and anyone else qualifies by living with the taxpayer for the whole year, which is the only way a cousin can qualify.
The taxpayer must normally pay for over half of the person's support, and the person's gross income must be below $5,300 for 2026. There is no age test and no separate residence test beyond the household rule.
Five filing statuses
Filing status sets the rate schedule, the standard deduction and the AGI thresholds that reduce benefits.
Married filing jointly and married filing separately depend on marital status on December 31. A qualifying surviving spouse keeps joint rates for up to two years after the year of a spouse's death, if a dependent child lives in the home and the survivor pays more than half its cost. Head of household is for an unmarried taxpayer who covers over half of a home's upkeep for a qualifying person. Single is the default.
If one spouse filing separately itemizes, the other must itemize too.
The abandoned spouse rule
A married taxpayer can still file as head of household if they do not file jointly, pay more than half the cost of a home that is the principal residence of their dependent child for over half the year, and lived apart from the spouse during the final six months of the year.
It is a special rule, not a sixth status.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Qualifying child: relationship, age, residence, support
- 02
Tiebreaker rules
- 03
Qualifying relative tests
- 04
Gross income limit for 2026
- 05
Five filing statuses
- 06
Head of household and the qualifying person
- 07
Abandoned spouse rule
Worked example · free
Filing status in the years after a spouse dies
- 12025: a spouse who dies during the year leaves the survivor treated as married, so married filing jointly is available.
- 22026: within two years after the death, with a dependent child and the home costs paid, she is a qualifying surviving spouse.
- 12028: the two-year window has closed; unmarried with a qualifying child and home costs paid, she is head of household.
- 12026 standard deduction: $32,200, the same as married filing jointly.
Key terms
- Qualifying Relative
- A dependent who is not a qualifying child and meets the relationship or household, support and gross income tests.
- Tiebreaker Rules
- Rules deciding who may claim a child when two or more taxpayers could each claim the same child.
- Qualifying Surviving Spouse
- A filing status that keeps joint rates for up to two years after a spouse's death when a dependent child lives at home.
- Married Filing Separately
- The status for married taxpayers who file their own returns, often chosen for reasons other than tax.
- Abandoned Spouse
- A special rule letting a married taxpayer living apart from a spouse file as head of household.
- Support Test
- The test comparing who pays for a person's food, housing, education and other needs over the year.
Dependents and Filing Status FAQ
Does a college student living on campus fail the residence test?
No. Time away at college is treated as a temporary absence, so a full-time student who returns home counts as living with the parents for the year, provided the other tests are also met.
Do scholarships count as support the student provides?
For a qualifying child, scholarships are generally left out of the student's own support. The class examples treat a scholarship differently when the student is not the taxpayer's child, where it can count as self-support.
Can a cousin ever be claimed as a dependent?
Only as a qualifying relative under the household rule, which requires the cousin to share the taxpayer's home all year. The cousin must also pass the support test and stay under the 2026 gross income limit.
Is head of household better than single?
Usually yes. Head of household carries wider rate bands and a $24,150 standard deduction for 2026, against $16,100 for a single filer, so the same income produces less tax.
Exam move
Build a four-row table for the qualifying child tests and a four-row table for the qualifying relative tests, then run three family scenarios through both. Finish each by naming the filing status the result supports.
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