@vieraerika435 The fact that you received a refund that you were not entitled to receive and now will have a problem repaying is your own issue and you will have to deal with it. Sooner rather than later would be better. If your GF filed her own return and got the stimulus money and other child-related credits for her children, the IRS is eventually going to see that you received money you should not have received for children with the same Social Security number. Then they will want you to repay it with interest and penalties. It would be better for you to amend your return and remove the dependents that you should not have claimed. If the children are not related to you then you were not entitled to receive child tax credit, earned income credit or the recovery rebate credit for claiming them. You may have to use a payment plan to repay the money you received.
To apply for a payment plan with the IRS
Apply Online for a Payment Plan
So that you understand----if you GF's children are not related to you---you are not their bio-dad----the only child - related credit you can get for claiming them is the $500 credit for other dependents and that would only be available to you if they lived with you for the whole year and they could not be claimed by anyone else including your GF. You cannot claim someone else's child to get the stimulus money, the earned income credit, child tax credit, or to file as Head of Household. If you did any of those things you made a big mistake for which you will have to repay anything you received as a result of your mistake.
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
