Me and my boyfriend had a baby in 2019, we live together and we both pay half and half of everything. He makes almost double what I make. Is he the head of household? Who should claim our daughter?

[wackmo]

both of you would meet the tests to claim your daughter except there are tie-breaking rules when otherwise either could claim.     in your case your boyfriend would seem to have the higher adjusted gross income and woukd be the one who is qualified to claim her. 

[ReginaM · Accepted solution]

Since you and the other parent live together then your child becomes the qualifying child of more than one person. Only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit). The other parent would not list the child on the return at all.

1. The child tax credit. 
2. Head of household filing status. 
3. The credit for child and dependent care expenses. 
4. The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits. 
5. The earned income credit.

The IRS uses Tie Breaker Rules for this purpose (when both parents live together with the child).  You can make the choice yourselves based on the information.  You should try it on each return to see the maximum benefit, then decide who will claim the child.

You can make an agreement that only one of you claims the child or under the Tie-Breaker Rules the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.