Head of household

[Brianmcgee4]

I live with my fiancée and we had a child together in 2019. We agreed that she would claim the child as a dependent. When I did my taxes, I told TurboTax this. I also pay half the rent, but all of the utilities and insurance and make more money. TurboTax said that eve though she was claiming the child, that I could still file as Head of Household, because the child was a “qualifying person” and lived with me all year. Now her tax preparer (she doesn’t use TurboTax) is saying that because I did that I will prevent her from getting the earned income credit and that she will get a letter from the IRS about the discrepancy and her refund would be delayed. I did not claim the earned income credit or the child in any way other than filing HOH. Is this true? Will her refund be delayed and will I have to amend my filing to single status and pay back part of my refund? And if so, why would TurboTax tell me to do this? Any help on this is greatly appreciated. Thank you. 

[Jlewis1781]

I have the same issue as below and I filed like I did last year as HOH which worked just fine, and the girlfriend tried to file the child as dependent as single to get the child tax credit and EIC and it rejected her because turbo tax put our child on the dependent line along with his S.S. number on my form this time even though I didn't claim him for EIC and child tax credits. Last year they just checked HOH at the top and put down his first name on the form. Now I need to find out what I need to do to correct this.

[xmasbaby0]

If you are a non-married couple who live together then only one of you can claim the child(ren) and the one not claiming the child does not enter anything at all on their tax return about the child. 

You are getting confused by the rules for divorced or never married couples who do NOT live together.  

[xmasbaby0]

This is what is confusing you.   You live together--so you say---so these rules do NOT apply to you.

Are you the custodial parent?  Do you have an agreement with the other parent to allow the other parent to claim them--due to divorce or that you live apart and share custody?  Did one of you sign a Form 8332?

If there is a signed 8332 then the custodial parent retains the right to file as Head of Household, get earned income credit and the childcare credit + education credits if the child is a full-time college student.  The non-custodial parent gets the child tax credit for children under the age of 17.

As far as the IRS is concerned, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child spent the most nights during the tax year--at least 183 nights.

[Jlewis1781]

No we do live together and I own the house and make a lot more money than she does. We filed the same as last year just this year turbo tax put our son’s name on the dependent line with his social even though I stated we had an agreement that she would claim him on hers and she would file single while I filed head of household. Last year when I filed turbo had the form checked HOH for me and just had Our sons first  name on the line next to head of household status