European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                February the stars and stripes Page 9 your income fax part 3 everyone qualifies for exemption by Walter Yohey editors note this is the third in a series of tax articles by Walter Yohey a noted tax accountant and author of the 1981 income tax guide for military personnel which is now available at your stars stripes your personal exemptions every person who files a tax return is entitled to claim his or her own personal exemption in the amount of this exemption May be claimed even though some other taxpayer such As a Parent is entitled to claim that person As a depend in audit sort to the personal you May claim an additional exemption if youre age 65 or Over As of the last Day of the tax if you qualify As being youre entitled to yet another personal when claiming the extra exemption for you should attach a statement from an Eye doctor or registered optometrist to your tax return if this is the first year the exemption is being your spouses exemptions your spouse is also entitled to his or her own personal exemption of As Well As the additional exemptions for age and blindness if he or she As a general the simple fact that youre married will enable you to claim a spouses exemptions if you file a joint tax its important to remember that a spouses exemptions Are completely different than exemptions for de Pendents under our tax a spouse is not considered to be a dependent while you May be entitled to claim your spouses exempt this privilege is based on your Mari Tal As opposed to a dependency situation for this its most important not to confuse the rules for your spouses exemptions with the exemptions you intend to claim for your if you and your spouse do not file a joint income tax you May claim his or her exemptions on your separate return Only if your spouse had no Gross income for the tax year and that spouse was not the dependent of some other taxpayer for the an exception to this Rule is granted in cases where each of the spouses had less than of Gross income for the year and they Are not required to file a tax if youre divorced or legally separated at the end of the tax you May not claim the exemptions for a former if the decree is still in the interlocutory stage at the end of the tax youre still considered to be married for tax exemptions for dependents if youre required to file a tax youre entitled to claim a exemption for each individual who qualifies As your keep in that the extra exemptions for age and blindness do not apply to exemptions for dependents to qualify As a the person you claim must meet five specific dependency tests 1 support test As a general you must have provided More than half of the dependents support during the tax 2 Gross income test As a general you May not claim an individual As a dependent if he or she had or More of Gross income for the tax the Gross income test does not apply to your dependent children who Are under 19 years of age at the end of the tax nor does it apply if your child is a full time regardless of 3 relationship test the person being claimed As a dependent must either be related to you or have been a member of your household and lived with you for the entire tax you May claim the dependency exemption for a per son whose relationship to you is in Viola Tion of local 4 citizenship test an individual being claimed As a dependent must be either a citizen or resident of the United or a resident of Canada or or an alien child adopted by and living with a United states citizen in a foreign 5 married dependent test if the de pendent is he or she must not file a joint tax return with his or her important note there Are several exceptions to virtually All of the aforementioned so Check your tax Book if youre not 100 positive youve met the general requirements exemptions for children of divorced or separated parents this is an area which often causes con fusion at tax As a general if the Childs parents together provide More than half of the Childs the Parent having custody of the child for the greater portion of the year will be entitled to claim the dependency exemption but there Are important exceptions to this general Rule the Parent who does not have or who has custody for the smaller portion of the May claim the Childs exemption if he or she satisfies either of the Fol lowing 1 that Parent contributed at least toward the Childs support for the year and the divorce decree or separation agreement specifies that this Parent is entitled to claim the Childs dependency exemption 2 that Parent contributed or More toward the Childs support for the year and the Parent who had custody can not prove that he or she contributed support furnished by a third party on behalf of a divorced or separated Parent is not considered As support provided by that if the Parent having Cus Tody of the child support furnished by the new spouse is treated As if it was provided by the remarried Parent of the determining support while its fairly easy to determine if an individual satisfies most of the dependency the support test often causes tax payers some items to count when determining the amount of support youve provided would include the fair rental value of lodging provided the As Well As amounts spent for Educa medical and dental transport Barber or Beauty shop school tuition and Book birthday and Christmas recreational and similar Type items of when determining do not in clude such items As premiums for life in funeral and burial in come taxes and social Security taxes the value of room and Board provided a student nurse by a school of scholarships received by the dependent for study at an educational and similar if you support the dependent by use of a dependency both the amount contributed by you and the amount contributed by the government Are counted As having been furnished by you in determining support of a multiple support there arc Many instances where contributions from two or More individuals pro vide More than half the support of a Mutu Al but none of the contributing parties provides enough to be Able to claim the person As a in such the contributors who provide More than 10 of such support can agree among themselves As to which one of them will claim the person As a the person claiming the exemption must then secure a form 2120 multiple support declaration from the other contributors and attach these forms to his or her editors note while the information provided in this article is of general use to military More detailed guidance on the subjects discussed can be found in Yohes Book 1981 income tax guide for military personnel which is available at your stars stripes the next article in this series will Dis cuss your tax filing How it is de and How you might save taxes by qualifying for a different powerboats Are dental chiefs other life from High Speed drills to racing thrills by Chuck Vinch staff writer Germany there Arent Many people who can say Treyve walked away from a 90milean hour but Lucius Battle not Only did just Hes still driving at the same High in his perhaps swam away might be a better the dental services director has been a High Speed boat racer for almost 30 years and he Doest show signs of letting Battle laughs when explaining the circumstances of his collision during one of his we were heading into a he and the buoys that marked the course happened to be stationary pilings in the one of the other boats on the outside crowded me towards the piling and i hit it the boat Sank and he flew but besides being sore and a bit Black and Blue after hitting the water so he survived Battle owns two hydroplane boats and usually manages to get Back to the states at least once a year to participate in races sanctioned by the american Powerboat association the boats Are 12 feet Long with bolted on outboard i race in two and one of my boats has a 250 cubic Centi meter cd with a top Speed of about 90 Miles per the other has a which can go in excess of 100 Miles per he the engines Burn Al Cohol As he Battle stumbled upon Powerboat racing purely by Accident in 1953 when he at tended a boat club meeting in his native i went to the meeting with a Friend of who was a it was Plain curiosity and i didst know a thing about it at the he my first race was at Lake Jackson in i made one turned and got caught under the boat with my life jacket hooked around the it took me a full three minutes to get out of that didst discourage i was too Young to worry about it he Lucius Battle still fast after 30 years but the sport has become a bit too specialized according to with the Aba listing Only registered we started off with a Basic outboard fishing slightly and now we have engines that Are vastly More complicated and he its gotten to the Point where you Al most have do the motor and boat work because the Cost would be prohibitive to get somebody to do it for he went on to say that the boats Cost about while the engines can run from to and the prize Money is not that so Battle does it All along with his Dieter who has been working with him since Dieter brought racing engines he had developed from Berlin to the states that and 1 raced with him that Battle we were introducing the motor on the racing circuit As a new product to the and we finished first or second in every race we ran that Hes still building my Battle intends to head Back to the states this summer to compete in the National Aba and Hes extremely optimistic about the two boats hell calling them the Best boats Hes Ever had in All his years of the courses Are about 1 Miles in Laid out in a rough triangular Fash the boat actually rides on a Cushion of Battle and Only a few inches of excluding the arc actually in the water during a besides the Battle also competes in races sanctioned by the Union of inter National motorboating there Are Tough teams from Germany and he the last world meet he entered was in this past the Tough est team right now is the says they make a motor called the which is probably the fastest out Board racing engine the Ger mans Are also very taking and fourth Battle says that right now there Are actually Only two competitive engines Avail the Yamoto and the ones built by and he blames this again on the fact that Powerboat racing has become too it started professionally in the Battle using old fishing for a while there was a whole array of racing motors to choose but around the late 50s they began now there Are no competitive Ameri can also at one time in the 50s there was a manufacturer called Swift boats out of Florida who was into mass production of but they finally went out of despite Battle remains enthusiastic about his Ive become a Little More of a cautious racer As Ive gotten but i still drive just As he