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Where does your child live? Does she live with your ex and his GF? Or does the child live with you?
The GF can only claim her if the child lived with them all year. If the child lives with you part of the time then GF cannot claim her. Did the child spend at least 183 nights with you in 2020?
If your child lived in your home more than half the year, only you have the automatic right to claim the child as a dependent. There is no such thing as 50/50 custody in the eyes of the IRS, you must actually count the number of nights where the child lives. If you have custody more than half the year, claim the child and file your return. If the other person already e-filed and has blocked you, you can print your return and file by mail. The IRS will investigate and, based on the girlfriend not being married to the other parent, she would lose the claim.
If your child lived in the other parent's home more than half the nights of the year, only the other parent has the automatic right to claim the child and you can't claim anything unless the other parent gives you a signed waiver. However, the other parent's unmarried girlfriend can't claim the child unless the child lives in her home for the entire year. If the ex has no income and doesn't file a return, then no one else can claim the child as a dependent. However, for 2020, the ex could file a return with zero income and claim the child as a dependent to claim the recovery rebate for the child.
(Because 2020 was a leap year, it is possible that each parent could have custody exactly half the year, 183 days each. In that case, the parent with the higher income can claim the child as a dependent, but can't claim the child as a qualifying person for head of household, because exactly half the year is not more than half the year. In other years with 365 days, one parent must have custody more than the other, even if only 1 day more.)
However, while you might be able to punish the girlfriend by reporting the fraud, you won't get a financial benefit. You can report suspected fraud using a special form. See this link. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/how-do-you-report-suspected-tax-fraud-activity
We have 50/50. We do week on week off. He doesnt work and they are not married.
We are in michigan
@Buickgirl1983 wrote:
We have 50/50. We do week on week off. He doesnt work and they are not married.
There is no such thing as 50/50 custody because the IRS follows federal law and not state court orders. You actually have to count the number of nights the child spends in each home. The custodial parent is the one who has more nights, even if only 1 more. Or, for 2020, since it was a leap year, if each parent had exactly 183 nights, then the parent with the higher income can claim the child but not EIC or head of household status. For those benefits, you must have custody more than half the nights, and exactly half is not more than half.
If it was exactly half and you have higher income than your ex, you can claim the child but you must select "6 months" in turbotax as the custody time. If you had custody 184 or more nights, select "7 months" in Turbotax since 6 months is exactly half and 7 months is more than half the year. If you had custody 182 or fewer nights, you can't claim your child without a signed waiver.
Q. Can my daughter be claimed by my ex-husbands girlfriend?
A. Simple answer: No.
Because she is not related, a dependent must live with her all year and that can't be possible since the child lives with you +/- half the year.
Even if the child did live with her all year, she could not claim full benefits (EIC, HoH, Child Tax credit) because the child is not related.
If she's getting a substantial refund, she's most likely filing an erroneous tax return. You should be the one claiming the child, since the ex does not work.
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