Who qualifies to claim a child's investment income on their tax return using Form 8814?

You must be the child's parent in order to report the investment income on you tax return. You also must meet one of the following conditions:

• You are filing a joint return for 2025 with the child's other parent.
• You and the child's other parent were married to each other but file separate returns for 2025 and you had the higher taxable income.
• You were unmarried, treated as unmarried for federal income tax purposes, or separated from the child's other parent by a divorce or separate maintenance decree. The child must have lived with you for most of the year (you were the custodial parent). If you were the custodial parent and you remarried, you can make the election on a joint return with your new spouse. But if you and your new spouse do not file a joint return, you qualify to make the election only if you had higher taxable income than your new spouse.

Note. If you and the child's other parent were not married but lived together during the year with the child, you qualify to make the election only if you are the parent with the higher taxable income.