Taxes question; I pay child support to my child overseas, so can I claim her as dependent in the US tax form ?

In order to claim the child you have to meet a ton of tests. The IRS has two different categories. #1. Qualifying child. First rule, Requires the child to live with a parent in the United States. Child doesn't, next test. #2. Qualifying relative. Dependent cannot be a qualifying child of another taxpayer (met). Dependent cannot file a married joint return with someone else (presumably met as she's nine). Dependent must be a US citizen *or* a resident of the US, Mexico or Canada. Since you do not give the country, can't tell, presumably NOT met since you said overseas. Child has to either live with you *or* be your biological child (met). Dependent's income must be less than $3700 (presumably met). You must provide more than half of the dependent's total support. Must be able to prove this from records, not opinion (unknown). Let's assume the child is a US citizen living in Guatemala and you can prove the support. ALL you will get is the $3700 exemption. If you are in the 15% tax bracket, your taxes would go down by $555. You would NOT get HOH, the child tax credit, or EIC.

NO because child support is for the child and the child does not live with you in your home in the U S. And you and your child do NOT meet any of the required rules that you both would have to meet for you to be able to claim your child as you qualifying child dependent for the tax year. Go to the www.irs.gov website and use the search box for Publication 17 go to chapter 3 page 26 Personal Exemptions and Dependents Qualifying child page 28 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf Hope that you find the above enclosed information useful and good luck to you. 08/21/2011

Probably not. 1. By law, you can never claim a child for whom you pay child support, unless you would be able to claim that child even if you had not paid child support. In other words, paying child support cannot give you the ability to claim the child; you can claim the child only if you can claim the child for other reasons. 2. You can only claim U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, residents of Canada, residents of Mexico, and legal permanent residents of the U.S. If the child is a foreigner and does not live in Canada or Mexico, then you cannot claim the child. 3. You cannot claim a child if the child lives with the child's other parent and that parent pays U.S. income taxes, unless either (a) the child also lives with you, or (b) the child's other parent (the one who lives with the child) signs a form agreeing not to claim the child and to allow you to claim the child. Most adult U.S. citizens living overseas are required to pay U.S. income taxes. If your ex-wife is a U.S. citizen living overseas with the child, then your ex-wife probably is required to pay U.S. taxes, which means that you cannot claim the child unless your ex-wife signs this form. 4. Paying for food, tuition, etc., is not always enough. The standard for claiming a person who does not live with you is paying more than 1/2 of the person's total support for the year, and support includes the housing in which the person lives (if you do not pay for the home where the child and your ex-wife live, then the housing that the ex-wife provides to the child counts as support not provided by you).

For a better understanding of your options go to IRS.GOV and order up or download the free Pub 17 and read it; go over the flow charts. Very important is whether or not the child has a social security number and is a US citizen or not; if such is the case the child can be going to school in out mongolia and is still considered by the IRS to be residing under your roof. Child support per se is not tax deductible nor is it taxable to the recipient btw. Read and study and apply the written words from Pub 17.

No you can't. Paying child support wouldn't entitle you to claim the child if he or she were in the US, either, court ordered or not.

no