10.5.2 Proving Relationship Status

A mother claiming a child can prove relation simply by submitting the child’s birth certificate. More birth certificates may be required if the taxpayer is claiming a grandchild or a niece or nephew. Submit all the birth certificates needed to show the relationship between the taxpayer and the claimed child.

Problems can arise for male taxpayers who may not be listed as the father on a birth certificate. That taxpayer will have to take steps to legally acknowledge the child if he wants to claim the child on his tax return. The taxpayer may have already done this in the context of a child-support proceeding. New birth certificates can be obtained when the legal acknowledgment is done.

Taxpayers claiming adopted children and children placed in foster care by a state agency will have to show documentation of those facts.