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taxpayer cares for the individual as his own child. Thus, we
must also decide whether petitioner cared for Ileane and Janiah
as his own children. In this connection, Ileane and Janiah lived
with petitioner for the entire year, and petitioner assisted in
support and caretaking of the children. Petitioner, even at the
young age of 19, was the oldest male in the household and
contributed to the household. While the children’s grandmother
worked, it is not entirely clear the extent to which parenting
responsibilities were shared by members of the household. We
conclude, based on the entire record, that petitioner cared for
his nieces as his own children, and thus, the children are
qualifying children for purposes of computation of the earned
income credit under section 32. We find for petitioner on this
issue.
4. Child Tax Credits
We next consider the child tax credits. A taxpayer may be
entitled to a credit against tax with respect to each “qualifying
child”. Sec. 24(a). The plain language of section 24
establishes a three-pronged test to determine whether a taxpayer
has a qualifying child. If one of the qualifications is not met,
the claimed child tax credit must be disallowed. The first
element of the three-pronged test requires that a taxpayer must
have been allowed a deduction for that child under section 151.
Sec. 24(c)(1)(A).
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