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If baby & I rcvd Medicaid/WIC benefits based on my income & a family size of 2 w/ him as my dependent child, do I have to claim him on my federal taxes or can his dad?
We both are custodial parents but are unmarried filing single/separate.
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If baby & I rcvd Medicaid/WIC benefits based on my income & a family size of 2 w/ him as my dependent child, do I have to claim him on my federal taxes or can his dad?
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If baby & I rcvd Medicaid/WIC benefits based on my income & a family size of 2 w/ him as my dependent child, do I have to claim him on my federal taxes or can his dad?
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If baby & I rcvd Medicaid/WIC benefits based on my income & a family size of 2 w/ him as my dependent child, do I have to claim him on my federal taxes or can his dad?
That would be a question best directed toward your state social services agency.
For social services purposes, they may want to know that you are living with the other parent and that parent's income, regardless of how you file your tax return. Not informing them that you are living with the other parent may be benefits fraud. The IRS will not share your tax information with your state (such as, who claims the dependent) but your state tax return information might be shared with the state social services agency.
For IRS purposes, if you live together unmarried, then either parent can claim the child, but only one parent can claim the child. You can't "split" the benefits as is the case for some parents who live apart and share custody. Generally, the most tax savings will come if the parent with the higher income claims the child, but that is not always true if EIC is an issue. The only way to find out the best tax situation is to test it both ways.
For Turbotax purposes, the parent who will not claim the child should not even list the child in their return. Listing the child and then doing the dependent qualification interview can sometimes lead to incorrect results because the interview is poorly designed when looking at unmarried parents who live together.
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