Unmarried parents living together with 3 children. Father gross around 70k, mother gross around 24k.

[irishdrunk]

Unmarried parents living together with 3 children. Father gross around 70k, mother gross around 24k. Looking for max refund however kids must be split up

One child is stepson, mother signs Form 8332 so child's father that lives elsewhere can claim as a dependent, mother wants the EIC.

Of remaining two children, can Father claim 1, and all deductions, credits and benefits, and mother claim the other for all deductions, credits and benefits? Should Father (head of household) claim no children and let mother, since mother claiming would equal refund of almost double what father would owe, without claiming dependents?

[SweetieJean]

You cannot have a stepchild if you are not married to the child's mother. Are you the Bio Dad of the other two kids?

[irishdrunk]

@SweetieJean Maybe not for tax purposes, but he is definitely my stepson. For 13 of his 14 years.

I am the biological father of the other two boys, yes.

So I claimed my 4 year old, with the dependent deduction, the tax credit, the daycare deduction and the EIC (income too high for that.) I also took Head of Household.

Mother claimed the 9 year old, with all the deductions/credits/benefits, and claimed the EIC only for the 14 year old. Single.

Does this sound correct everyone? Thanks for a your help so far.

[macuser_22]

Definition:
"stepchild |?step?CH?ld|
noun (plural stepchildren)
a child of one's husband or wife by a previous marriage."

If you are not marred to the child's parent you do not have a stepchild for any purposes.

[SweetieJean]

Right. You are not legally the stepparent either.

[Bsch4477]

Irishdrunk...what you did is correct.  The child of your girlfriend is not your step-son but since you are not claiming him it doesn't matter.  You are claiming your biological child and your girlfriend is claiming one of her biological children for all credits and one of her biological children for EIC and child care credit (if quantified to do so).  It's all good!

[irishdrunk]

I'm not really interested in lexical semantics.  Marriage is foremost spiritual, and only became the business of government to steal money from us. I would argue he's my son, without appending the -step-. Clearly stated in OP I wasn't trying to, or interested in , trying to claim him.

@bsch4477 Thanks again for your assistance, my main concern was if the IRS would somehow consider both of our incomes as a "household" income, and not allow Mother's lower income to take advantage of EIC.

[Bsch4477]

You are quite welcome.

[Bsch4477 · Accepted solution]

1.  Mother can give away the dependency to the non-custodial father and as the custodial parent she gets to claim EIC.

2.  You provide more than half of household expense so can file as HOH but you need to have a qualifying child to do that so you have to claim one of the children with all the credits.

3.  Mother claims one child and files as single and gets EIC  and all the other credits for that child.

[Carl]

@bsch4477  2. and 3. conflict with filing status. Item 2 says HOH while item 3 says file as single. Can you clarify things for @irishdrunkass please?

[Bsch4477]

As I understand the poster, there is a father living elsewhere and a father and mother (unmarried) in the home.  Father in the home files as HOH and mother files as single--each claiming one child.  The 3rd child is claimed by the non-custodial father.

[irishdrunk]

Father wants to file HoH, and claim one child.  Mother wants to file single, and claim 1 child, and also get the EIC from the 3rd child that she is custodial parent of, but child's father claims as dependent.

Doing the numbers, when Father claims 2 children (can't claim 3rd, stepson, child's father claims him) with Child Tax credit, dependency, and EIC, refund is around 500. Mother with no children is also around 500.

 Doing the numbers the way in question, father owes approx $1500, but mother refund is around $6000

Is it possible to each claim one of the other two children, one each, to take advantage of the much higher EIC with mother's lower income?

[Bsch4477]

Yes, each claims one of the children that the non-custodial father is not claiming.  Father in home files HOH and mom as single.  OR, mom can claim both kids in the home and the other one for EIC and father in the home claims no child and both of you file as single.

[irishdrunk]

Sorry for confusion, let's see if I can clarify more.

Unmarried parents share two biological children in the home, out of 3.  3rd child is mother's biological child only.  Mother signed Form 8332 until 2022, so that child's father (not in the home) can claim child as dependent.  For that child, mother wants EIC only.

Mother hasn't filed since 2008, as stay-at-home mother, but worked all of 2017, so this year is different.

This is why we want to look at creative options to maximize refund.  Father can only claim 2 of the 3 children here, but it seems to add up to much higher return, if Father claims just once, and uses mother's refund to pay what's owed.

[Bsch4477]

I understand completely.  You have the choice of filing in any combination as in my post.  What you cannot do is one of the scenarios in your original post i.e., you filing as HOH and not claiming a child.   You have to have a qualifying child to file as HOH.