Resident in UK: Can I claim an adult dependant on my US tax return?

My son is dependant on me. He is unable to work and suspended from an MPhil course.  He has severe depression and anxiety. I am paying for private psychotherapy. He was under my care and living at home for whole of 2017. I’m not sure what the US tax position is for overseas filers.

I believe you can, as long as you provided more than 1/2 his upkeep for the year and he didn't have more than $4,050 taxable income for the year.  From the IRS website:

"In order to claim someone as your dependent, the person must meet certain tests as shown below.

The dependent must be:

    Either your qualifying child or qualifying relative
    A U.S. citizen, U.S. resident, U.S. national or a resident of Canada or Mexico
    Unmarried or if married, not filing a joint return or only filing a joint return to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.

Additionally, you must meet the dependent taxpayer test. If you can be claimed as a dependent by another person, you can't claim anyone else as a dependent. The requirements for qualifying child and qualifying relative as well as additional information regarding these tests can be found in Publication 501, Exemption, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information."  https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-501


Here's the IRS interactive guide that may be of use to you. https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/whom-may-i-claim-as-a-dependent

Note that there are massive changes in the IRS taxes for 2018 onwards. For 2018, you can’t claim a personal exemption deduction for yourself, your spouse, or your dependents.

Thanks Nan. I will check out the resources in your message.

Being practical, because UK tax is typically higher than US tax, claiming any number of dependents rarely changes the US tax liability from zero. Would this save you tax? If so, why?

Being practical, because UK tax is typically higher than US tax, claiming any number of dependents rarely changes the US tax liability from zero. Would this save you tax? If so, why?

You've got a point there.  Unless the person had no UK-taxable income and are just dealing with last year's USA taxes. If they had, say, less income than the 11,500 pound ($15,000) HMRC tax free allowance, they wouldn't pay UK tax, so they couldn't use it to wipe their USA tax. Until they had enough UK income to have UK taxes that exceeded their USA tax, it makes sense to reduce USA taxes as much as possible.