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than are taxpayers with fewer than two qualifying children. Sec.
32(a) and (b).
Respondent argues that petitioner had no qualifying children
in either 1995 or 1996 because no individual met the relationship
and residency requirements of section 32(c)(3).
As is relevant here, the definition of a qualifying child
includes a child or an “eligible foster child” of the taxpayer
who has the same principal place of abode as the taxpayer for
more than half of the taxable year. Sec. 32(c)(3)(A).2 An
eligible foster child is an individual who the taxpayer cares for
as the taxpayer’s own child and who has the same principal place
of abode as the taxpayer for the taxpayer’s entire taxable year.
Sec. 32(c)(3)(B)(iii).
On his returns, petitioner claimed that Dustin and Kristion
were qualifying children in 1995, and that Kristion and Brittany
2Respondent presumably is not arguing that Brittany cannot
be a qualifying child in 1996 merely because she was born in
September of that year. The Internal Revenue Service has taken
the position that the birth of an individual during the taxable
year does not affect the status of that individual as a
qualifying child, so long as she lived with the taxpayer during
the entire time she was alive. See the Internal Revenue
Service’s instructions accompanying Schedule EIC, Earned Income
Credit (Qualifying Child Information), and their Publication 596,
Earned Income Credit (as published currently and for the years in
issue). This position is in accordance with the legislative
history of sec. 32, which states that rules similar to those
governing head of household filing status should be adopted for
the sec. 32 residency requirements. H. Conf. Rept. 101-964, at
1037 (1990), 1991-2 C.B. 560, 564; sec. 1.2-2(c)(1), Income Tax
Regs.
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