The Georgia Department of Revenue has announced residents can now claim unborn children as dependents on their tax returns amounting to a $3,000 benefit.
It’s all due to the “Living Infant and Fairness Equality (LIFE) Act” which has now taken effect in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
On Monday, Georgia’s Department of Revenue issued guidance citing recent rulings by the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Sistersong v. Kem.
“The Department will recognize any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat…as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption,” the guidance read. “The 11th Circuit’s ruling made HB 481’s amendment to O.C.G.A § 48-7-26(a), adding an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat to the definition of dependent, effective as of the date of the court’s ruling, which was July 20, 2022.”
“As such, on individual income tax returns filed for Tax Year 2022 where, at any time on or after July 20, 2022, and through December 31, 2022, a taxpayer has an unborn child (or children) with a detectable human heartbeat (which may occur as early as six weeks’ gestation), the taxpayer may claim a dependent personal exemption…in the amount of $3,000.00 for each unborn child,” the guidance continued.
“Similar to any other deduction claimed on an income tax return, relevant medical records or other supporting documentation shall be provided to support the dependent deduction claimed if requested by the Department,” the guidance continued.
The department said additional information on how to claim the personal exemption for an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat will be issued later this year along with other tax changes impacting Tax Year 2022 Georgia individual income tax returns.
The pro-life group Live Action says there’s nothing unusual about the Georgia law, saying, “Undelivered human beings have always been persons, and the founding fathers of the U.S. used the terms ‘person’ and ‘human being’ interchangeably. Though ensuring every human being has equal rights might seem like a bothersome task to those opposed to the idea, preborn humans are no less human than those outside the womb and are currently discriminated against due to size, level of development, degree of dependency, and environment.”
Passed in 2019, the LIFE ACT was initially ruled unconstitutional in July 2020, but that ruling was reversed in July 2022, after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision that left the issue of abortion up to each of the 50 states, according to The New York Post.
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