Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE 2—The Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, Dec. 3, 1970 (Elje Nnutmrij 1101 Boyce Street, Newberry, South Carolina 29108 PUBLISHED EVERY”THURSDAY - 0. F. Armfield, Jr., Owner Second-Class Postage Paid at Newberry, South Carolina SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 83.00 per year in advance; six months, 82.00. INCOME TAX INFORMATION PERSONAL EXEMPTIONS AND DEPENDENTS (This is the third and final article in a series devoted to problems encountered by tax payers in claiming exemptions and dependents on their Federal tax returns.) Your dependent must be a United States citizen or resi dent. or a resident of Canada, Mexico, the Panama Canal Zone or the Republic of Panama for some part of the year you claim the deduction. In the case of United States citizens living abroad who le gally adopt a child who is not a United States citizen, a de pendency deduction is allowable for the child after he has lived with the taxpayers for an en tire tax year. Foreign students who main- t a i n a home with United States citizens under the Inter national Education Exchange Service are not generally United States residents and may not be claimed as dependents. (However, if the student is be^ low college level, you may de duct the amount you paid for the student's maintenance in your home as a contribution under itemized deductions.) MULTIPLE SUPPORT AGREEMENT In some cases, no one per son contributes more than one- half the support of a dependent, and, under the general rule of chief support, nobody could claim that person as a depen dent. This inequity was corrected a few years ago with the pro vision for the Multiple Support Agreement. In such cases, if a depen dent receives more than one- half his support from a group, none of whom furnishes over half support, but all furnish more than 10 per cent of the dependent’s support, any one of the group may claim the deduction provided the others sign a Multiple Support Agree ment Form stating that they will not claim the dependent. These Forms 2120 must be at tached to the return of the tax payer claiming the dependent. The forms are available from any IRS office. THE WAY IT WORKS Example: You, your brother and your sister each furnished more than 10 per cent of your mother's support during t he year. The total support all three of you furnished equaled 60 per cent of her total support. In this case, either you, your bro ther, or your sister would be entitled to claim the mother's exemption provided the other two agreed, signed the Multi ple Support Agreement forms and gave them to you to at tach to your return. CLAIMING A NON-RELATIVE Not long ago a person could not be allowed as a dependent. regardless of the amount of sup port received from the taxpay er, unless he met certain re lationship tests. This was chan ged a few years ago. Today, a non-relative may qualify as your dependent if all the other dependency tests are met, pro vided the dependent was a member of your household for the entire tax year. DIVORCED OR SEPARATED PARENTS One of the most vexing pro blems confronting tax auditors has been making a determina tion as to w-hich divorced or separated parent is entitled to claim their child or children as dependents. Some cases in the past have been almost im possible to solve. IRS has attempted to alle viate this problem by setting forth specific guidelines as to which parent shall be recogniz ed as the proper claimant These rules apply only if divor ced or separated parents, to gether, furnish more than one- half the child’s support for the calendar year, and if the child is in his parents’ custody for more than half the calendar year. Example: You have custody of your child for 10 months of the year, and your spouse has the child for the other 2 months. You and your former husband provide the child’s total sup port. You are entitled to claim the child as a dependent. How ever, if, under these conditions, a third party furnishes over half the child's support, you may not claim the child as a dependent. SPECIAL RULE The parent not having cus tody of the child (or having it for the lesser period) is en titled to the dependency deduc tion if: 1. He contributed at least $600 towards the child’s support dur ing the year, and a written agreement between the par ties specifies that he is entitled to the exemption; or, 2. He provided $1200 or more for the support of the child (or children) for the calendar year and the parent having custody does not clearly esta blish that he provided a great er share of the child's (or chil dren’s) support. In cases involving the second exemption (above) where the parent having custody claims that the exception is not satis fied or claims to have furnished greater support, each parent is entitled to receive an itemized statement of the expenditures upon which the other parent bases his claim of support State plagued by “mystery” accidents South Carolina has had more than its share of “freak" or 'mystery" accidents which re sulted in deaths, according to State Highway Department traf fic records. Accidents which are classified as motor vehicle traffic acci dents. insofar as national uni form standards are concerned, are mishaps that the average person might not place in the category of traffic accidents, an official in the Department’s traf fic records section said. “South Carolina has been pla gued by the misfortune of hav ing more than its share of ‘freak’ accidents resulting in death," he said. He listed as examples, the following: 1. A person struck in the yard of his residence by a wheel which became detached from a truck on a highway some dis tance away. 2. A person stepping out of I'm going to raise the insurance on my house next month. I'm going to raise the insurance on my house next month. I'm going to raise the insurance on my house next month. Time Can Run Out. Call us! •YOUR PRIVATE BANKERS’’ 1US Main Street Phone 276-1422 the door of a mobile home while it was being towed along the highway. 3. A person falling off a farm tractor while it was traveling along a highway. U A driver of a farm tractor crushed under the tractor after running off the highway and overturning.. 5. A car running into a lake or river, causing no injury or damage. The occupants, how ever, died from drowning. 6. Persons, apparently by de liberate intent, either crash ing a vehicle or walking into the path of a vehicle, causing death. 7. A person driving away from a parking position and disco vering that a small child, who is under the parked vehicle, is crushed to death. 8. A small child falling through floorboard of a mov ing car onto the pavement and being killed. 9. A person jumping off of a slow moving farm truck onto the highway, resulting in death. 10. A car running off a high way and colliding with a house, killing persons sitting on the front porch. CHRISTMAS SEALS FIGHT EMPHYSEMA TUBERCULOSIS AND AIR POLLUTION 11. A person jumping on the rear bumper of car as it drove off, falling on the highway, caus ing death. 12. Persons suffering massive injuries in accidents, but strong evidence that they actually died from heart attacks or other seizures prior to collisions. “Some of these accidents re sulted in only one death,” the official explained. In some cas es, however, there were two or more deaths. Also, there have been more than one instance in some of the type occurances we have mentioned here.” While South Carolina’s traf fic death toll during 1970 has been consistently ahead of the deaths for the same period last year, the number of fatal acci dents has been consistently smaller. This indicates more multiple death accidents this year than last. “For example,” the official said, “on November 22, our death toll for 1970 was 884, an increase of seven over the same period last year. In fatal accidents, however, the to tal this year for the same date was 735 as compared to 743 for the same period last year or a decrease of 8.” CHRISTMAS SEALS FIGHT EMPHYSEMA TUBERCULOSIS AND AIR POLLUTION Thumbs Up for Christmas Seals! I"YU' livers Christmas Seals with a strong thumb and Dad makes with the thumb to receive them, while the youngest member of the family rrnlhi thumbs her way! All concerned know that Christmas Seals are “a matter of life and breath" to fight emphysema, tuberculosis, air pollution and more! AN INDOOR-OUTDOOR SEASON IN THE SOUTH! Winter wears many faces in the South. Consider skiing on firm-packed snow in the mountains of Tennessee, tracking winter game through the woodlands of Alabama and South Carolina... golf at famed coastal resorts in Georgia and Mississippi fishing, boating and water skiing in the gentle clime of Florida And, anywhere and everywhere in the satisfy ing South, the contentment of compan ionship beside a crackling fire. It’s a pleasant scene And your friends in the brewing industry are a part of it all . contributing to the economy through local payrolls, local purchases and local taxes supporting local law enforcement ...encouraging everyone to "Keep America Beautiful'' in every season. UNITED STATES BREWERS ASSOCIATION, INC. p O Ho/ !, .1 f> C 79206