Dependent

• To register a child as a qualifying child, you must first meet certain conditions to determine dependency. One of the conditions for claiming a child as a dependent is the relationship test. Under the relationship condition, a child may be your child or stepchild, foster child, a sibling or stepsibling, or the descendant of a sibling or stepsibling. In addition, she must be under the age of 19 and have lived with the taxpayer for more than half the year. The child must also be a United States citizen or national, or a citizen of Canada or Mexico. The child must not have paid more than half her support herself for the year and, if married, cannot be filing a joint return.
  
  

Filing Status

• A taxpayer's filing status can significantly affect the amount of tax liability he has at the end of the year. If a taxpayer files as the head of a household, he will generally gain an advantage with regard to his tax liability. A taxpayer must have a qualifying child in order to file as head of household. In order to use your 11-month-old niece as a qualifying child, she would need to meet all of the same conditions as a dependent.
  
  

Child and Dependent Care Credit

• The child and dependent care credit allows taxpayers to claim a credit for expenses incurred during the year to care for a child while the taxpayer was working or looking for work. In addition to the requirements for a dependent, a qualifying child for purposes of the child and dependent care credit must also be under the age of 13 or permanently and totally disabled.
  
  

Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Credit

• Both the child tax credit and the earned income credit are credits that a taxpayer may qualify for if she claims a qualifying child. The child tax credit does not begin to phase out until a single taxpayer's income reaches $75,000 (as of 2011) while the earned income credit income limit for an individual taxpayer in 2011 was $35,535. In order to use your 11-month-old niece for either credit, she must meet the dependent conditions. For the child tax credit, she must also be a United States citizen, national or resident and under the age of 17. For the earned income credit, she must meet the dependency conditions with the exception of the support condition.