@lolmmkthnx wrote:
As of right now, my boyfriend filed his own return (which also got rejected because of the same situation). He sent the documentation providing proof that he has full custody of his son and that his son lived with us for the majority of the year.
If for whatever reason, he still is unable to get through the IRS, can I go back and file an amended return and mail it in with the proof of documentation of his custody before the tax deadline? There is also information that shows that the son lives in our household.
Any rejected return is as-if it was never filed. I'm not clear on what has happened.
If you had mailed your original return, you would have claimed the child as an "other" dependent, which qualifies for the $500 other dependent credit but not the stimulus rebate. The IRS would have processed and paid the refund, then started an investigation into the duplicate claim. Presumably, you could have proved your case that the child lived in your home the entire year and that you provided more than 50% of the child's support.
Now, if your BF filed a return with zero income but listing the child as a "qualified child" dependent, he will qualify for a recovery rebate in his own name, plus for the child, assuming he previously did not receive a stimulus payment for the same amount. The IRS will, in all likelihood, lose any extra paperwork he mailed with the return. They should pay the refund, and again, will start to investigate the duplicate dependent claim, usually in 6-9 months. Your BF will have to provide proof that the child lived with him more than half the nights of the year. He will not have to provide proof that he supported the child. For proof of residency, the IRS prefers documents from reliable outsiders that show the child lived with your BF, such as letters from schools, doctors, and other professionals sent to your home about your child, that will tend to show that the child lived in your home. The IRS will probably have lost any documents you mailed with the return so hopefully you kept copies. Assuming the other parent or their GF loses the investigation, they will have to repay any disallowed refund amounts with interest and possibly a penalty.
At this point, you CAN'T claim the child as a dependent under any circumstance. You can't claim a child as a "qualifying relative" dependent unless no other "taxpayer" can claim the child as a "qualifying child" dependent. Your BF is not a taxpayer if he has no income and files no return. But since he filed a return to claim the child and the recovery rebate, he is now a "taxpayer" for 2020, and that means you can't claim the child as a dependent.
None of this will happen by April 15 in any case. The deadline for filing an amended return is 3 years from the due date (if an amended return is possible in this case, which it is not). The IRS won't even start to investigate the duplicate dependent claim until September at the earliest, based on past history, and they may be even more backlogged than usual. Most of the time, the IRS will pay the claimed refund on a tax return filed on paper fairly quickly, and investigate later.
