Claiming dependents

[Beeze51]

I have been claiming my girlfriend and her 8 year old son for 7 years with zero issues. She was a stay at home mom to my step son(were not married) and now that hes in school she is a full time student. I support both of them all year, every year. For whatever reason the IRS decided that this year I have to prove my relationship to the child and her or else I cannot claim the eic or head of household. This is crazy to me. Because weve done this for 7 years through turbo tax and jackson hewitt to make sure we werent doing anything wrong and its been fine every year. Until now. With us not being married how am I supposed to prove relation? I fan prove they lived here all day long and his school records let me as the step father as well. I call but the number just reads off the paper I was sent and offers no help at al . Am I screwed? Why am I suddenly not considered hoh or able to claim him after 7 years? Can I just send in the proof of residency forms and hope that works or is it pointless. 

@audit @eic 

[xmasbaby0]

You say she is your GirlFriend?  You are not legally married?  Are you in a state that recognizes common law marriage? 

(  CO, DC, CO ,IA, KS, MT, OK, RI, SC, TX, UT)  

If you are not--then you have been filing incorrectly.  You cannot use Head of Household as your filing status if the dependent you claimed is not biologically related to you. 

Am I Head of Household?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894553-do-i-qualify-for-head-of-household

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2900097-what-is-a-qualifying-person-for-head-of-household

If you qualify as Head of Household, when you enter your filing status (single or married filing separately) into MyInfo, and then enter your qualifying dependent, TurboTax will offer HOH as your filing status.