Support.

Your support includes all amounts spent to provide the child with food, lodging, clothing, education, medical and dental care, recreation, transportation, and similar necessities. To figure your child’s support, count support provided by you, your child, and others. However, a scholarship received by your child isn’t considered support if your child is a full-time student. For details, see Pub. 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information.

Parents are married.

If the child's parents file separate returns, use the return of the parent with the greater taxable income.

Parents are divorced.

If the child's parents are divorced or legally separated, and the parent who had custody of the child for the greater part of the year (the custodial parent) hasn’t remarried, use the return of the custodial parent.

Parents never married.

If a child's parents have never been married to each other, but lived together all year, use the return of the parent with the greater taxable income. If the parents didn’t live together all year, the rules explained earlier under Parents are divorced apply.

Widowed parent remarried.

If a widow or widower remarries, the new spouse is treated as the child's other parent. The rules explained earlier under Custodial parent remarried apply.

Parent with different tax year.

If the parent and the child don’t have the same tax year, complete Form 8615 using the information on the parent's return for the tax year that ends in the child's tax year.

Parent's return information unavailable.

If a child can’t get the required information about their parent's tax return, the child (or the child's legal representative) can request the necessary information from the IRS.

Exceptions.

If the custodial parent remarried and filed a joint return with their new spouse, enter the name and SSN of the person listed first on the joint return, even if that person isn’t the child’s parent. If the custodial parent and their new spouse filed separate returns, enter the name and SSN of the person with the higher taxable income, even if that person isn’t the child’s parent.

If the parents were unmarried but lived together during the year with the child, enter the name and SSN of the parent who had the higher taxable income.

Earned income.

Earned income includes wages, tips, and other payments received for personal services performed.

If the child is a sole proprietor or a partner in a trade or business in which both personal services and capital are material income-producing factors, earned income also includes a reasonable allowance for compensation for personal services, but not more than 30% of the child’s share of the net profits from that trade or business (after subtracting the deduction for one-half of self-employment tax). However, the 30% limit doesn’t apply if there are no net profits from the trade or business.

If capital isn’t an income-producing factor and the child’s personal services produced the business income, all of the child’s gross income from the trade or business is considered earned income. In that case, earned income is generally the total of the amounts reported on Form 1040 or 1040-NR, line 1z, and Schedule 1 (Form 1040), lines 3 and 6.

Earned income also includes any taxable distribution from a qualified disability trust. A qualified disability trust is any nongrantor trust:

A trust won’t fail to meet (2) above just because the trust’s corpus may revert to a person who isn’t disabled after the trust ceases to have any disabled beneficiaries.

Directly connected.

Itemized deductions are directly connected with the production of unearned income if they are for expenses to produce or collect taxable income or to manage, conserve, or maintain property held for producing income. These expenses include custodian fees and service charges, service fees to collect taxable interest and dividends, and certain investment counsel fees.

Child files Form 2555.

If the child files Form 2555 (relating to foreign earned income), enter the amount from line 3 of the child's Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet (in the Instructions for Form 1040), instead of the child's taxable income.

Parent files Form 2555.

If the parent files Form 2555 to claim the foreign earned income exclusion, housing exclusion, or housing deduction, the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet in the Instructions for Form 1040 is used to figure the parent's tax. Enter the amount from line 3 of the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet as the parent's taxable income, on line 6 of Form 8615.

Net capital gain and qualified dividends on line 8.

If neither the child, nor the parent, nor any other child has net capital gain, the net capital gain on line 8 is zero. (The term “other child” means any other child whose Form 8615 uses the tax return information of the parent identified on lines A and B of Form 8615.)

If neither the child, nor the parent, nor any other child has qualified dividends, the amount of qualified dividends on line 8 is zero.

If the child, the parent, or any other child has net capital gain, figure the amount of net capital gain included on line 8 by adding together the net capital gain amounts included on lines 5, 6, and 7.

If the child, the parent, or any other child has qualified dividends, figure the amount of qualified dividends included on line 8 by adding together the qualified dividend amounts included on lines 5, 6, and 7. Use the following discussions to find these amounts.

Child files Form 2555.

If line 8 includes any net capital gain or qualified dividends and the child, or any other child filing Form 8615, also files Form 2555, see Using the Schedule D Tax Worksheet for line 9 tax , later, to figure the line 9 tax.

Using the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet for line 9 tax.

If you use the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet to figure the line 9 tax, complete that worksheet as follows.

Enter the amount from line 25 of the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet on Form 8615, line 9, and check the box on that line. Don’t attach this worksheet to the child's return.

Using the Schedule D Tax Worksheet for line 9 tax.

Use the Schedule D Tax Worksheet (in the Schedule D instructions) to figure the tax on line 9, if the child, the parent, or any other child has unrecaptured section 1250 gain or 28% rate gain. If you must use the Schedule D Tax Worksheet, first complete any Schedule D and any actual Schedule D Tax Worksheet required for the child, the parent, or any other child. Then, figure the line 9 tax using another Schedule D Tax Worksheet. (Don’t attach this Schedule D Tax Worksheet to the child’s return.)

Complete this Schedule D Tax Worksheet as follows.

Enter the amount from line 47 of this Schedule D Tax Worksheet on Form 8615, line 9, and check the box on that line. Don’t attach this worksheet to the child’s return.

Using Schedule J (Form 1040) for line 9 tax.

If any farming or fishing income is included on line 8, the tax may be less if you use Schedule J. Use Schedule J to figure the line 9 tax on Form 8615 if Schedule J is used to figure the tax on the parent's return. First complete the actual Schedule J for the parent, then use another Schedule J as a worksheet to figure the tax to enter on line 9 of Form 8615. (Don’t attach this worksheet to the child's return.)

Complete this worksheet Schedule J as follows.

Enter the amount from line 23 of this worksheet Schedule J on Form 8615, line 9, and check the box on that line.

Parent files Form 2555.

If the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet (in the Instructions for Form 1040) was used to figure the parent's tax, enter the amount from line 4 of that worksheet, instead of the parent's tax from Form 1040, line 16.

Net capital gain and qualified dividends on line 14.

If the child doesn’t have any net capital gain or qualified dividends, the amount of the net capital gain and qualified dividends included on line 14 is zero.

If the child has net capital gain, the amount of net capital gain included on line 14 is the amount from line 2 of the child’s completed Line 5 Worksheet minus the amount from the last line of that worksheet. (See the earlier discussion of line 8.)

If the child has qualified dividends, the amount of qualified dividends included on line 14 is the amount from line 1 of the child’s completed Line 5 Worksheet minus the amount from the next to the last line of that worksheet. (See the earlier discussion of line 8.)

Using the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet for line 15 tax.

If you use the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet to figure the line 15 tax, complete that worksheet as follows.

Enter the amount from line 25 on line 15 of Form 8615 and check the box on that line. Don’t attach this worksheet to the child's return.

Child files Form 2555.

If line 14 includes any net capital gain or qualified dividends and the child files Form 2555, see Using the Schedule D Tax Worksheet for line 15 tax next for instructions on how to figure the line 15 tax.

Using the Schedule D Tax Worksheet for line 15 tax.

Use the Schedule D Tax Worksheet (in the Schedule D instructions) to figure the line 15 tax if the child has unrecaptured section 1250 gain or 28% rate gain. Don’t attach this Schedule D Tax Worksheet to the child’s return.

Complete this Schedule D Tax Worksheet as follows.

Enter the amount from line 47 of this Schedule D Tax Worksheet on Form 8615, line 15, and check the box on that line. Don’t attach this worksheet to your return.

Using Schedule J (Form 1040) for line 15 tax.

If Schedule J applies, use it as a worksheet to figure the tax to enter on Form 8615, line 15. On line 1 of this worksheet, enter the amount from Form 8615, line 14. Complete lines 2a through 23 following the Schedule J instructions. Use the child’s filing status to complete lines 4, 8, 12, and 16.

Enter the amount from line 23 of this worksheet Schedule J on Form 8615, line 15, and check the box on that line. Don’t attach this worksheet to the child’s return.

Child files Form 2555.

If your child files Form 2555 and has a net capital gain or qualified dividends, figure the tax using the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet or the Schedule D Tax Worksheet, whichever applies. To fill out that worksheet, follow the instructions in the footnote to the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet (in the Instructions for Form 1040).

Child files Form 2555.

If your child files Form 2555, don't enter the amount from Form 8615, line 18, on the child's Form 1040 or 1040-NR, line 16. Instead, enter the amount from Form 8615, line 18, on line 4 of the child's Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet. Then complete the rest of the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet (in the Instructions for Form 1040) to figure the child’s tax.