If I get the earned income credit for my 2 kids can my live in partner get it also? She is claiming the kids as dependents not me.

[Heather14 · Accepted solution]

If you both meet the  standards set forth by the IRS for you to claim the Earned Income Credit, then you could both claim the credit, bearing in mind that the children can only be claimed by one person for tax purposes (see below for more rules regarding the claiming of children for Earned Income Credit).

IRS standards for claiming Earned Income Credit:

• You must be a citizen of the United States, and must live in the U.S. for more than half of the year.
• You must have earned income for the tax year and a valid Social Security number (SSN).
• You can't be a qualifying child on another return
• You can't use the married filing separate (MFS) filing status.

Eligible taxpayers may claim the credit either with or without a qualifying child. Taxpayers without a qualifying child must be at least age 25 and under age 65 and not be a dependent or a qualifying child of another. Income limitations also apply. Income guidelines for the current tax year are listed in Publication 596: Earned Income Credit.

The following information can be found by seeing IRS PUB 596 - Rule 9 Your Qualifying Child Cannot Be Used by More Than One Person To Claim the EIC (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf)

Sometimes a child meets the tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. However, only one of these persons can actually treat the child as a qualifying child. Only that person can use the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit).

1. The exemption for the child.

2. The child tax credit.

3. Head of household filing status.

4. The credit for child and dependent care expenses. 

5. The exclusion for dependent care benefits.

6. The EIC.

The other person cannot take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person cannot agree to divide these tax benefits between you. The other person cannot take any of these tax bene- fits unless he or she has a different qualifying child. 

[cassyplusnoahlex]

No only the one who is claiming the children

[Hal_Al]

No.  You cannot legally do that: you claim EIC and she claim them as dependents. A child can be claimed on only one tax return. You can each claim one child (assuming you are both the child's biological parents) as dependent and for EIC.

 There is a special rule in the case of divorced & separated (including never married) parents. When the non-custodial parent is claiming the child as a dependent/exemption/child tax credit; the custodial parent is still allowed to claim the same child for Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status, and day care credit. Even then only one parent can claim EIC.

This "splitting of the child" is not available to parents who lived together at any time during the last 6 months of the year; then only one of you can claim the child for any tax reasons.