I recently had to have a little chat with the IRS. They sent me a letter claiming I had miscalculated my tax refund. I double checked everything and disagreed. I suspected that they had not properly accounted for Leah, so I called in and spoke with a very nice agent. I was right. The computer program that they used to check my tax refund had two separate places for entering the child's social security number, but only one of those areas had a place where a contingency could be entered. Thus the bean counter who checked our 1040 got the first part of our taxes correct, but not the second part, and incorrectly assumed that the error was ours and not the computer program's. If we had asked for a social security number for Leah, this would not have happened.
Deciding whether or not to get a social security number for a child that passes away shortly after birth is a big decision. One benefit of having a social security number is that it makes taxes easier. You can e-file, and there is less likely to be confusion, as there was in our case. Also, many parents may find receiving a social security number positively validates their baby's life. However, when you get a social security number for your baby you run the risk of your child's identity being stolen. The deceased are a prime target for identity theft and fraud. Having Leah's identity stolen felt like too big of a risk to us. The thought of dealing with that kind of personal violation in the future outweighed the minor inconvenience of not being eligible to e-file our taxes.
Parents who have a child who survives birth are eligible to claim that child as a dependent on their taxes. The deductions and the child tax credit can be very helpful for off-setting birth and funeral expenses, so it is worth the small steps necessary to do this. You must order a certificate of live birth from your state. In the section for exemptions on the 1040, there is a box under the letter "c" that allows you to list your dependents. You write the baby's name in column one. In column two, the area for the social security number, write "died." In column three where you list the dependent's relationship to you, write "child." Then, check the box in column four. You must attach a birth certificate to your form before you send it in. Just include it with your W-2s and other documents. You may claim your child only for the year of their birth. Click here for a link to the IRS FAQ that briefly explains this.
Remember the stimulus check your received in June of 2008? It was calculated using your 2007 filing status, but is based on your status in 2008. So, if you had a child born in 2008 you need to recalculate your stimulus rebate. You can use the "Recovery Rebate Credit Worksheet" on pages 62 and 63 of the 1040 forms and instructions booklet to do this. This was where the IRS made the mistake in calculating our taxes. Because the computer program for calculating the stimulus is one that they are only planning to use for one year they did not build it very carefully. Thus, when the IRS agent who checks your refund attempts to enter in a child without a social security number as a dependent, it won't work and the computer will say you calculated your refund incorrectly. You will then receive a notice in the mail claiming the same. This notice directs you to call and speak to an agent if you would like an explanation. Do this. Have the agent go over the form with you, and explain that your child does not have a social security number but can be claimed as a dependent because you sent in the birth certificate. They will have go around the computer program to correctly issue the refund. Besides the very very long wait, the discussion I had with the agent was rather painless. It is important to know that even if you have already filed and forgotten to do this, you can file an amended return and receive the credit.
Your child must be born alive for you to take this credit. They only need to live for a moment, but there must be a certificate of live birth for this to apply. It seems very unfair that a family who suffers from a stillbirth (defined as a child born dead after the 20th week of pregnancy) which necessitates all the same expenditures of a short-lived child, does not receive the same tax benefit.
Leah's birth and brief time with us is far more valuable than any tax refund can possible reflect. But it is always nice to pay fewer taxes. Although I have no antagonism with the IRS (hating the IRS is shooting the messenger), it really bothered me to send them one of Leah's birth certificates, even though I had ordered the certificate for that purpose. I am just so proud of her for surviving against the odds, and her birth certificates are the small proofs I have of that struggle. Even though I can order as many as I want, and they will all be exactly the same, and they are not even expensive, I still didn't want to let one go. It was emotionally wrenching to staple one of Leah's certificates to a 1040 and mail it in.
Deciding whether or not to get a social security number for a child that passes away shortly after birth is a big decision. One benefit of having a social security number is that it makes taxes easier. You can e-file, and there is less likely to be confusion, as there was in our case. Also, many parents may find receiving a social security number positively validates their baby's life. However, when you get a social security number for your baby you run the risk of your child's identity being stolen. The deceased are a prime target for identity theft and fraud. Having Leah's identity stolen felt like too big of a risk to us. The thought of dealing with that kind of personal violation in the future outweighed the minor inconvenience of not being eligible to e-file our taxes.
Parents who have a child who survives birth are eligible to claim that child as a dependent on their taxes. The deductions and the child tax credit can be very helpful for off-setting birth and funeral expenses, so it is worth the small steps necessary to do this. You must order a certificate of live birth from your state. In the section for exemptions on the 1040, there is a box under the letter "c" that allows you to list your dependents. You write the baby's name in column one. In column two, the area for the social security number, write "died." In column three where you list the dependent's relationship to you, write "child." Then, check the box in column four. You must attach a birth certificate to your form before you send it in. Just include it with your W-2s and other documents. You may claim your child only for the year of their birth. Click here for a link to the IRS FAQ that briefly explains this.
Remember the stimulus check your received in June of 2008? It was calculated using your 2007 filing status, but is based on your status in 2008. So, if you had a child born in 2008 you need to recalculate your stimulus rebate. You can use the "Recovery Rebate Credit Worksheet" on pages 62 and 63 of the 1040 forms and instructions booklet to do this. This was where the IRS made the mistake in calculating our taxes. Because the computer program for calculating the stimulus is one that they are only planning to use for one year they did not build it very carefully. Thus, when the IRS agent who checks your refund attempts to enter in a child without a social security number as a dependent, it won't work and the computer will say you calculated your refund incorrectly. You will then receive a notice in the mail claiming the same. This notice directs you to call and speak to an agent if you would like an explanation. Do this. Have the agent go over the form with you, and explain that your child does not have a social security number but can be claimed as a dependent because you sent in the birth certificate. They will have go around the computer program to correctly issue the refund. Besides the very very long wait, the discussion I had with the agent was rather painless. It is important to know that even if you have already filed and forgotten to do this, you can file an amended return and receive the credit.
Your child must be born alive for you to take this credit. They only need to live for a moment, but there must be a certificate of live birth for this to apply. It seems very unfair that a family who suffers from a stillbirth (defined as a child born dead after the 20th week of pregnancy) which necessitates all the same expenditures of a short-lived child, does not receive the same tax benefit.
Leah's birth and brief time with us is far more valuable than any tax refund can possible reflect. But it is always nice to pay fewer taxes. Although I have no antagonism with the IRS (hating the IRS is shooting the messenger), it really bothered me to send them one of Leah's birth certificates, even though I had ordered the certificate for that purpose. I am just so proud of her for surviving against the odds, and her birth certificates are the small proofs I have of that struggle. Even though I can order as many as I want, and they will all be exactly the same, and they are not even expensive, I still didn't want to let one go. It was emotionally wrenching to staple one of Leah's certificates to a 1040 and mail it in.
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3 comments:
This is something I honestly had never even thought about. I never applied for a social security number and no one even told us about our taxes for that year. The extra would have been nice to pay for expenses since we didn't have medical insurance at the time Colleen was born. This is great information. Thanks for sharing!
We were asked last year when we did our taxes if we had any children. I said yes but she passed away. I was then asked if she was stillborn and said yes, then was told that if she had lived even for a moment we could hav put her as a dependant for that year. The thing that is so hard for me to accept is that Avery's heart was beating up until an hour before she was born. We didn't even know that she had passed until she was born, and if we had done a C-section like I had wanted to (my doctor was very much against it) she would have lived, maybe just for a few minutes but she would have been alive.
I don't care about the money really but it would have helped us so much because of the debt we got into just to get pregnant with her then all the testing that was done after we found out about the skeletal dysplasia. At least we were able to write off the medical expenses.
Hmm. Thanks for this info! My son was here with me for 29 hours, and I did receive a social security card for him, but I never even thought about adding it to my taxes... That was 5 years ago, so it's long past, but it's nice to know (God forbid) for the future.
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