If I have children and someone else was able to claim them do I still have to put them on my tax return

[ShawnaD · Accepted solution]

If someone else claimed your children as dependents, you cannot claim them as dependents on your tax return. The IRS will not allow this. You may be able to claim them as non-dependents for EIC and child and dependent care credit purposes (assuming the other person didn't claim them for EIC also).

You can change your child's dependent status for EIC using the instructions below:

• On the Tax Timeline, select "Personal Info".

• Scroll down and find your dependent's name and click "Edit" (or click + Add a dependent to add a new dependent to the return).
  

• Follow the interview process until you get to the screen that says "Do you have an agreement with [child's] other parent about who can claim her?" Select "Yes" if this applies to your situation and you have an agreement with the other parent on who can claim the child (or click "No" if it does not apply to you and TurboTax will ask a few more questions to determine who can claim the child).

• If you select Yes to the question above, the next screen "Is [child's] other parent claiming [child] per your legal agreement?" select yes and this will remove your child as a dependent from your tax return.

• Continue to the next couple of screens and you should see your dependent summary that shows "EIC or Dependent Care Credit Only" under the status column next to the child's name.