CLARIFICATION OF UNIFORM DEFINITION OF CHILD.

SEC. 501. CLARIFICATION OF UNIFORM DEFINITION OF CHILD.(a) Child Must Be Younger Than Claimant.—Section 152(c)(3)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting “is younger than the taxpayer claiming such individual as a qualifying child and” after “such individual”.(b) Child Must Be Unmarried.—Section 152(c)(1) of such Code is amended by striking “and” at the end of subparagraph (C), by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (D) and inserting “, and”, and by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:“(E) who has not filed a joint return (other than only for a claim of refund) with the individual’s spouse under section 6013 for the taxable year beginning in the calendar year in which the taxable year of the taxpayer begins.”.(c) Restrict Qualifying Child Tax Benefits to Child’s Parent.—(1) Child tax credit.—Section 24(a) of such Code is amended by inserting “for which the taxpayer is allowed a deduction under section 151” after “of the taxpayer”.122 STAT. 3980(2) Persons other than parents claiming qualifying child.—(A) In general.—Section 152(c)(4) of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:“(C) No parent claiming qualifying child.—If the parents of an individual may claim such individual as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the individual, such individual may be claimed as the qualifying child of another taxpayer but only if the adjusted gross income of such taxpayer is higher than the highest adjusted gross income of any parent of the individual.”.(B) Conforming amendments.—(i) Section 152(c)(4)(A) of such Code is amended by striking “Except” through “2 or more taxpayers” and inserting “Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) and (C), if (but for this paragraph) an individual may be claimed as a qualifying child by 2 or more taxpayers”.(ii) The heading for section 152(c)(4) of such Code is amended by striking “claiming” and inserting “who can claim the same”.(d) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.