Tax Treatment of Child living with unmarried parents

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 8, 2024
13 replies
127 views

An unmarried couple live together with their child. Each is a professional person with a comparable six-figure income. They own their home jointly and share all expenses. The child lives with them 100% of the time and all of the child’s expenses are shared equally. Both parent's names are on the child's birth certificate. Since they are not legally married, they cannot file a Married-Filing-Jointly tax return.

Assuming no other factors, how does the IRS determine which of them can legally file as Head-of-Household and which must file as single?

xmasbaby0

Level 15

If the two parents cannot agree, you can use the IRS tie breaker rules. But.....the child can be claimed as a dependent on only ONE of the tax returns. The other parent must file as single and will not enter anything about the child on their return.

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.

TIE BREAKER RULES

https://itap1.for.irs.gov/owda/0/resource/Commentary_Files_Redirect_ITA/en-US/help/tbrk09.html

**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.**

rjs

Level 15

"how does the IRS determine which of them can legally file as Head-of-Household"

One of the requirements for filing as head of household is that "You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year." Only the parent who paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home can file as head of household. The other parent obviously paid less than half. If they literally split all expenses exactly 50/50, to the penny, then neither one paid more than half the cost, so neither of them can file as head of household .

rickwmAuthor

Level 2

Then what would be the point of the tie-breaker rules?

In this case, they really do pay all expenses equally, since they each contribute 50-50 to a common checking account they use to pay common expenses, and all expenses are paid from that account.

xmasbaby0

Level 15

If you literally split it 50/50 to the penny---then neither of you can file as HOH since neither one of you can say you pay more than 50%. You might want to take a long hard look at that, since the standard deduction for filing HOH is higher than the standard deduction for filing Single. The parent who will claim the child can file as Single and claim the child. The other one files Single and does not enter anything at all about the child on their return.