@hannahahaley wrote:
I am having the same issue. If I were to say I dont have any children and not include them on my tax return that would be a lie. So when people say "dont add them on your tax return at all" that is misleading. My S/O (unmarried, living together) is the head of household; provided for us by himself for more than half the year. Then, when I started working I started an HSA and FSA for dependent care. It makes no sense at all that I would not be able to get a deduction for the FSA, HSA, and health insurance that I provided for my children. Yet he should be able to claim them as dependents as he did provide for them for more than half of the year and is head of house hold. Would it be possible to skip the earned income credit and still get credit for the FSA, HSA, and health insurance provided by itemizing my deductions instead of taking the standard deduction?
Once again, the tax law says that when a child can be the qualifying child dependent of more then one taxpayer then only *one* can claim the child and *all* the benefits - they cannot be split. If you cannot agree on who claims then the IRS has tie breaking rules that they will apply,
Qualifying Child of More Than One Person
[Quote from IRS Publication 501]
Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit).
1. The child tax credit or credit for other dependents.
2. Head of household filing status.
3. The credit for child and dependent care expenses.
4. The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.
5. The earned income credit.
The other person can’t take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person can’t agree to divide these tax benefits between you.
Tiebreaker rules.
To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these five tax benefits, the following tiebreaker rules apply.
1 - If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
2 - If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents.
3 - 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 adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.
4- If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
5 - If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child.
Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child.
[end quote]
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2018_publink1000220917
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
