Boyfriend & I live together, not married, 2 kids, I am a stay at home mom. How do i claim our kids as my dependents?

[rachaelnicklas]

My boyfriend of 8 years and I are living together. I am not working but stay at home taking care of the kids and my boyfriend 100% supports us. He is behind on his taxes from being a 1099 for a couple years, however, he is now on W2 and is filing his taxes each year. All of his returns go toward a tax obligation. We want to get some money back so when I working, I would claim our 2 children Now that I am a full time stay at home mom, how do I file taxes with our kids being my dependent?

[Lisa995]

If you have no income, you don't have anything to file on.  If your boyfriend is supporting all of you, he should be claiming all of you as dependents.  Yes, the IRS will apply his refund towards his past obligations.

[AnnaB]

If you had no income during the tax year, there would be no tax benefit to you claiming the children as dependents.  You would not qualify for any tax credit and you have no withholding to be refunded.  In addition, if you had no income during 2015, you would not be required to file a tax return.

Unfortunately, since you are not married, the IRS will likely take any past due obligations that are owed.  However, it would still be beneficial for the father to claim the dependents even if the refund is taken.  This will just pay off the debts quicker.

If you were married, you could file an Injured Spouse Claim and receive your "portion" of the refund back from the IRS.

Your boyfriend may be able to claim you as a dependent if you lived together for the entire year, he provided more than 50% of your support and your gross income was less than $4,000.   There are a few other eligibility requirements.  This is known as a qualifying relative as opposed to a qualifying child.  However, it would give him an additional $4,000 deduction from his income.

Please see the link below for more information on the requirements for a qualifying relative.

Qualifying Relative Requirements

[rachaelnicklas]

Another question, in 2015, I worked until March. So I have a small W2 to file. If I claim the boys for 2015, would the tax return that I would receive be based off of how much my Fed Tax Withholding, which is only $1,010.95.

[AnnaB]

Updated on 1/15/2016

You would receive the entire withholding back if you claim the boys and made less than $18,300.

If your income is less than $10,300 then you would get back all of your taxes withheld without claiming your children.  However, if your boyfriend claims you as a dependent (which he can't do if your income is over $4,000), you would have to pay taxes on any income over $10,300.

If you claim your children, you may qualify for the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Credit and Child and Dependent Care Credit (if applicable).  You would also get a $4,000 deduction from your income per child.

If your boyfriend claims the children, this is the same.

I recommend you prepare returns for both of you and try the various scenarios to see which is more beneficial.

[bwa]

TTAnnaB indicates - "As far as your boyfriend, he can claim the children as the non-custodial parent ".  That's not correct.  You can't apply the divorced and separated parent rule to parents who are neither divorced nor separated.  If you live together, only one of you can claim all of the tax attributes for the children.  As the IRS' Publication 17 explains:

"Sometimes a child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person. However, only one person can treat that child as a qualifying child and claim the EIC using that child. The paragraphs that follow will help you decide who, if anyone, can claim the EIC when more than one person has the same qualifying child.

You can choose which person will claim the EIC. If you and someone else have the same qualifying child, you and the other person(s) can decide which of you, if otherwise eligible, will take all of the following tax benefits based on the qualifying child.

• The exemption for the child.
• The child tax credit.
• Head of household filing status.
• The credit for child and dependent care expenses.
• The exclusion for dependent care benefits.
• The EIC."

One practical solution is to let your boyfriend claim the child, file Head of Household if he is eligible, claim the children and EIC and let the refund go to the IRS for his back taxes.  It's not going to go away and is increasing every day due to failure to pay penalties and interest.  Paying out of his refund is probably the least painful way to reduce that debt.

[AnnaB]

Thank you, I have updated response!