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New baby

If I am claiming my baby born last year on mine, does babies dad need to put any of babies information on his return?

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New baby

TurboTax will ask “how long did the child live with you?“ Answer the entire year, which is the correct answer for a newborn no matter when in the year they were born.  Then TurboTax will ask if you have a custody agreement with the other parent. Answer NO.  This question only applies to legal custody agreements between parents who live apart due to separation or divorce.  When your partner prepares their tax return, they should not indicate that they support someone and they should leave the child completely OFF their tax return.

 

The reason for this is that the TurboTax interview regarding custody is designed for parents who are divorced or separated and live apart and share custody under a court order, and can sometimes be misunderstood in the case of parents who are not married but who live together. In your situation, the easiest way to get the correct result is for the parent who wants to claim the child to claim the child and answer no to the custody question, and for the other parent to leave the child completely off their tax return.

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7 Replies

New baby

If you,  the baby and the father all live together for the same amount of time and you are NOT married then only ONE of you will mention the child on their  tax return ... the other person will not enter the child at all.  

New baby

you have not completely explained your situation. 

if both parents are not living together, generally it's the custodial parent who lived with the parent for more than 1/2 the year is the one who can claim 

if the child could be a qualifying child of either parent the tie-breaker rules are

first - the parent with whom the child lived the longest portion of the year

if this is a tie next - the parent with the highest adjusted gross income

 

 

New baby

Yes we live together, we just didn’t know if he had to add baby as a dependent but not claim him, if that’s how it works. I will be claiming him on mine since it works better for us. 

New baby

Ok thank you. Not married and living together so we weren’t sure how it worked. 

New baby

TurboTax will ask “how long did the child live with you?“ Answer the entire year, which is the correct answer for a newborn no matter when in the year they were born.  Then TurboTax will ask if you have a custody agreement with the other parent. Answer NO.  This question only applies to legal custody agreements between parents who live apart due to separation or divorce.  When your partner prepares their tax return, they should not indicate that they support someone and they should leave the child completely OFF their tax return.

 

The reason for this is that the TurboTax interview regarding custody is designed for parents who are divorced or separated and live apart and share custody under a court order, and can sometimes be misunderstood in the case of parents who are not married but who live together. In your situation, the easiest way to get the correct result is for the parent who wants to claim the child to claim the child and answer no to the custody question, and for the other parent to leave the child completely off their tax return.

New baby

By the way, you won’t get any tax breaks for the child if the child does not have a Social Security number when you file your tax return. If you don’t have the SSN yet, wait to file until you have it. If you will be waiting past April 15, make sure that you get the extension.

New baby

The child born questions have changed a little bit.

 

If you had a child born in 2021- Add them under My Info. You need to answer 2 questions…..

Did your child live with you for the whole year? Answer YES even if they were born late in the year (even on Dec 31).

 

Then was at least half of child's expenses paid by CHILD? Usually is NO.

 

See screen shot on this post

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/file-with-turbotax/discussion/child-tax-credit/00/2381605

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