Unmarried parents living together with 3 children. Father gross around 70k, mother gross around 24k.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 1, 2019
15 replies
67 views

Unmarried parents living together with 3 children. Father gross around 70k, mother gross around 24k. Looking for max refund however kids must be split up

One child is stepson, mother signs Form 8332 so child's father that lives elsewhere can claim as a dependent, mother wants the EIC.

Of remaining two children, can Father claim 1, and all deductions, credits and benefits, and mother claim the other for all deductions, credits and benefits? Should Father (head of household) claim no children and let mother, since mother claiming would equal refund of almost double what father would owe, without claiming dependents?

TurboTax Deluxe Online

Best answer by Bsch4477

1. Mother can give away the dependency to the non-custodial father and as the custodial parent she gets to claim EIC.

2. You provide more than half of household expense so can file as HOH but you need to have a qualifying child to do that so you have to claim one of the children with all the credits.

3. Mother claims one child and files as single and gets EIC and all the other credits for that child.

SweetieJean

Alumni - Champ

You cannot have a stepchild if you are not married to the child's mother. Are you the Bio Dad of the other two kids?

irishdrunkAuthor

Level 2

@SweetieJean Maybe not for tax purposes, but he is definitely my stepson. For 13 of his 14 years.

I am the biological father of the other two boys, yes.

So I claimed my 4 year old, with the dependent deduction, the tax credit, the daycare deduction and the EIC (income too high for that.) I also took Head of Household.

Mother claimed the 9 year old, with all the deductions/credits/benefits, and claimed the EIC only for the 14 year old. Single.

Does this sound correct everyone? Thanks for a your help so far.

macuser_22

Alumni - Champ

Definition:
"stepchild |?step?CH?ld|
noun (plural stepchildren)
a child of one's husband or wife by a previous marriage."

If you are not marred to the child's parent you do not have a stepchild for any purposes.

**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.**

SweetieJean

Alumni - Champ

Right. You are not legally the stepparent either.

Bsch4477

Level 15

Irishdrunk...what you did is correct. The child of your girlfriend is not your step-son but since you are not claiming him it doesn't matter. You are claiming your biological child and your girlfriend is claiming one of her biological children for all credits and one of her biological children for EIC and child care credit (if quantified to do so). It's all good!

irishdrunkAuthor

Level 2

I'm not really interested in lexical semantics. Marriage is foremost spiritual, and only became the business of government to steal money from us. I would argue he's my son, without appending the -step-. Clearly stated in OP I wasn't trying to, or interested in , trying to claim him.

@bsch4477 Thanks again for your assistance, my main concern was if the IRS would somehow consider both of our incomes as a "household" income, and not allow Mother's lower income to take advantage of EIC.

Bsch4477

Level 15

You are quite welcome.

Bsch4477

Answer

Level 15

1. Mother can give away the dependency to the non-custodial father and as the custodial parent she gets to claim EIC.

2. You provide more than half of household expense so can file as HOH but you need to have a qualifying child to do that so you have to claim one of the children with all the credits.

3. Mother claims one child and files as single and gets EIC and all the other credits for that child.