Child tax credit and no income

[Zjacoby24]

Hi my gf is a stay at home mother and has 2 kids from a previous relationship. I saw that from one of later bills passed that it said the child tax credit income levels are now dropped down to nothing. So if she wants can she file her own tax return with no income to claim the fill amount for her kids? The reason I'm asking is because I usually claim her and her kids but only get the dependent credit which is significantly less than what she would get for both if she could file separately.

[SweetieJean]

She cannot claim the CTC if she qualifies to be your dependent (whether you choose to claim her or not).

[xmasbaby0]

You are correct.   GF can file her own tax return and claim the children for the full amount of the child tax credit (assuming the children's other parent is not claiming them) even if she did not work in 2021.   That means you cannot claim them at all, nor can you claim your GF, since dependents cannot receive the CTC.

[xmasbaby0]

Congress left some big loopholes in this law.   SweetieJean is correct about the fact that if your GF CAN be claimed she is not supposed to say on her return that she cannot be claimed as someone else's dependent.   But the way they wrote this law, they left plenty of room to turn a blind eye to that.

[Zjacoby24]

So then what happens if she refuses to let me claim her? Would that then justify her being able to file her own taxes? She's kinda dead set on doing her own. I'm just trying to make sure she won't run into any snags.

[Vanessa A]

She could easily run into snags.  If she is caught claiming them when she is not eligible, she would need to repay the amount she received plus penalties and fines.  She is also filing a fraudulent return, so that could lead to other penalties.