@Mike9241 wrote:
for federal income tax purposes your GF cannot claim the child. the tax rules say that when both parents are eligible to claim the child, which seems to be the case here, the one with the highest adjusted gross income is the one that can claim them.
I'm sorry, but that's only partially correct. The tiebreaker rules apply when the parents can't agree.** If the parents both agree that the parent with lower income can claim the child, it's fine. As a practical matter, unmarried parents living together with a child usually need to prepare their tax returns both ways, to see which is best. If the lower income parent claims the child, they might qualify for less of the child tax credit, but might get more EIC. But likely neither parent can claim head of household status. If the higher income parent claims the child, they may get a larger child tax credit and can use head of household status, but might get less EIC. It needs to be tested both ways to be sure.
**specifically, the tiebreaker rule is
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If the parents don't file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher AGI for the year.
Therefore, if both parents qualify to claim the child but only one parent actually claims the child, this tiebreaker is not triggered. It doesn't matter what their income is as long as only one parent claims the child.
