After years of painstaking study, the Internal Revenue Service has just made the stunning announcement that on your birthday, your age increases. Not only that, your birthday is the anniversary of the date on which you were born.

As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. Here is the full text of Revenue Ruling 2003-72, which was released earlier this month:

This revenue ruling applies a uniform method of determining when a child attains a specific age for purposes of the following sections of the Internal Revenue Code: 21 (dependent care credit), 23 (adoption credit), 24 (child tax credit), 32 (earned income credit), 129 (dependent care assistance programs), 131 (foster care payments), 137 (adoption assistance programs), and 151 (dependency exemptions).

Each of these provisions allows a credit, exclusion, or deduction to the taxpayer, provided, among other requirements, a child has not attained a specific age. For example, under section 24(c), one of the requirements for a qualifying child for the child tax credit is that the child "has not attained the age of 17 as of the close of the calendar year in which the taxable year of the taxpayer begins."

HOLDING

For purposes of each of the provisions identified in this revenue ruling, a child attains a given age on the anniversary of the date that the child was born. For example, a child born on January 1, 1987, attains the age of 17 on January 1, 2004.

DRAFTING INFORMATION

The principal author of this revenue ruling is Karin Loverud of the Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities). For further information regarding this revenue ruling, contact Ms. Loverud on (202) 622-6080 (not a toll-free call).

The IRS's next project will be a five-year study to come up with a method of determining when the calendar year begins.