Stimulus and dependents
Hi Terry!
I’m a big fan! I’ve used a lot of your advice in the past and am hoping you can help me with a very weird current situation. On July 3rd 2018 my foster son came to live with us after his aunt could no longer take care of him. He was 6 months old. He is currently still with us and we will be adopting him shortly, yay!!! Hi aunt claimed him that year for taxes because she did have him 7 months of that year and we had him the other 5 so she was able to claim him on the 2019 taxes. Fast forward to the first stimulus in the summer of 2019 she also received his stimulus money. Fast forward again to this second round and she received money for him again even though she has not cared for him since July 3rd 2018. She hasnt even seen him in 1.5 years and is getting his money. We will be claiming him as a dependent on our 2019 taxes as he was in our care the entire year. Is there nothing we can do to get what is rightfully his? We would love to put that into a 529 plan for him. He is now 2 years old but we want to start saving early. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I hope I made sense of the situation.
Terry Says
How lovely that you are giving this child a chance! Please remind the “aunt” that defrauding the IRS of a stimulus payment is a Federal crime — and you won’t hesitate to report her to the IRS if she does not forward the new stimulus of $600 in the form of a check. And that would be a good time to remind her that you are claiming him as a dependent on your 2019 and 2020 tax returns — so if she were to do that it would add to the felony counts. It’s easy to report tax fraud at IRS.gov!
