Fiancé, my daughter & I moved in together 7/2017. We had a baby in November. Are we both HOH for last year for our previous residences? Can we each claim 1 of the kids?

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

Yes you can each claim one child.  You can claim your daughter, and he can claim the baby.  If your fiancé is not the biological father of your daughter he cannot claim her.  Even if he is, she has been with him for less than 6 months so he  couldn't get the same benefits that you can for claiming her.  But he can claim the baby because the baby was with both of you the rest of the year, and in TurboTax he can say his biological baby was living with him all year.

Can you both claim Head of Household?  Probably not.  This FAQ provides more information:  https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3288637.  

Remember that both you and your fiancé are claiming the same address at the end of the year.  Supporting a Household is considered over the course of the year, and the IRS' begins with the premise that two adults living in the same home cannot both be Heads of Household.  The fact that you have children together would make it additionally difficult to make the claim also.

[ssefcovic]

Ok, so even though we were both HOH in our respective homes for the majority of the year, you’re saying since we have the same address as of 12/31, we can’t both be HOH for our previous addresses. Correct?

[DanielV01]

It's a really gray area, which I don't recommend.  The main problem is the timeline.  For him to claim HOH with your baby, he has to be able to say he provided more than half of the household support, which is obviously when you were living there as well, and both cannot claim HOH for the same living space.  He can't claim Head of Household if he didn't have a qualifying dependent, which was the case when he lived in the prior location.  From that sense the answer is no, but there is a technicality side of it.  By IRS law, your baby technically lived with him all year.  This technicality could allow him to claim HOH, but it's begging for the IRS to audit it, and I don't like the chances of them ruling in your favor on this.