Live at my working boyfriend. And my two children. My wages is 35k and he 10k. We both 30 yrs old.

[xmasbaby0]

What is your question?

[VolvoGirl]

Is he the father of the children?  He can not claim you and you can not claim him.  You both file as Single unless one of you is married to someone.  You might be able to file as Head of Household.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

"Live at my working boyfriend." I assume that means you live at a home owned by him or leased to him.

"My two children."  I assume that means they are not his biological children.

He cannot claim the children because they are not related. So, you can and should claim both of them.

You cannot claim him as a dependent. He makes too much money. He cannot claim you as  a dependent, for multiple reasons.

The only real question, on the table, is do you qualify to file as Head of Household (HoH), instead of Single. HoH is very beneficial to you.  Head of household gives you a bigger standard deduction and lower tax rates than Single. The main requirements for Head of Household are: a taxpayer that

1) is single or did not live with their spouse at any time during the last half of the tax year.

2) has at least one closely related dependent (usually a child) that lived with the taxpayer for more than half the year

3) pays over half of the support of the household expenses, including rent / mortgage..., food.utilities etc.

The fact that he owns the house or the lease is in his name does not prevent you from claiming HoH, if you still actually pay most of the bills.

[SweetieJean]

"He cannot claim the children because they are not related." Actually he could, but as we see below, he cannot for other reasones.

[Carl]

You are the higher wage earner. So you claim both of your children. (assuming he is the father of those children)
He files single and gets the $6,400 standard deduction just for breathing, and his $4100 self-exemption. That totals $10,500 which means he will pay no taxes at all for 2017.

You also file single. You get the $6,400 standard deduction just for breathing, the $4,100 self-exemption, plus another $4,100 for each of your children. That totals. $18,700. Subtract that from 35K and you'll be paying taxes on $16,300 of your earned income.
If you qualify to claim Head of Household, then your standard deduction will be $9,350 meaning you'll only pay taxes on $13,350 of your income.
Of course, your actual taxable income may be lower depending on what other deductible expenses you may have, such as job related expenses, teacher expenses (if you're a teacher), mortgage interest, student loan interest and the such.

[Carl]

My above is assuming that neither of you are married to each other or anyone else on Dec 31 of the tax year.

[Q-A]

Not married to each other. Girlfriend lives with her two children at boyfriends home. Not his children and she provides more than 50%. He only buys grocery.

[Hal_Al]

You claim both children  and file as HoH. You do not claim your BF

[Carl]

HoH shouldn't be a problem. As I see it, with only 10K for the year, there's no way he provides even close to half the cost of maintaining the household - even if he owns the house.