- 3 - income tax returns for those years. For 2003 and 2004, petitioner claimed one of his two children as a dependent for purposes of claiming a dependency exemption. Petitioner also claimed a dependency exemption for his brother’s son (nephew), who was approximately 12 years old during 2003 and 2004. Petitioner’s brother resided in Sudan during 2003 and 2004. During 2003, the nephew lived in petitioner’s home, and petitioner provided all of the nephew’s support. During 2004, the nephew lived in petitioner’s sister’s home and petitioner provided some of the nephew’s support, but petitioner did not know whether the amount he provided was more than one- half of the nephew’s support. The issues we consider depend largely on the seminal issue of whether petitioner’s nephew was a dependent as defined in section 152 for 2003 or 2004. Before the 2005 amendments to the Internal Revenue Code, section 152(a) defined a dependent as, among others, a taxpayer’s niece or nephew over half of whose support was received from the taxpayer. Sec. 152(a)(6). Petitioner’s nephew met the section 152 dependency tests for 2003, but not for 2004 because petitioner did not establish that he provided over half the nephew’s support. Accordingly, petitioner is entitled to claim a dependency exemption for his nephew for 2003, but not for 2004.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 NextLast modified: November 10, 2007