Can i claim my girlfriends children? they've lived with me all year and i have support her and both children all year, even though my income was low?

[descent232]

she and her kids have lived with me all of 2017, ive paid for everything with my savings, and recently got a salary job this year but only made around $4,000 in 2017 since i got the job late in the year.

I was told that filing for them will do nothing to supplement my income tax.

 im over 25 too so i should qualify for the EIC

[SweetieJean]

How much was her 2017 income?

[descent232]

was only 1 or 2k

[Critter]

She should file to get the EIC for the kids based on her income ... but she also will not get any of the CTC.

[Critter]

In fact she doesn't even need to claim the kids as dependents ... so if the father is in the picture then she could waive the dependent exemptions to the other parent via a form 8332  and still retain the EIC. This could be a win win for both parties.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Simple answer: you can not claim her kids.

Because they are not related, they do NOT qualify you for the Earned Income Credit or Child Tax Credit. Your income is too low to get any benefit from claiming their exemptions ($4050 deduction). Exemptions are the only thing allowed when claiming an unrelated person as a dependent.

[macuser_22]

Unfortunately claiming the children would be of no benefit since your taxable income is zero without any dependents.  Any EIC that you qualify for (about $300) would be based on you and your income.  A unrelated dependent does not qualify for EIC even if you could claim them.