A Q? About filing taxes. Any help appreciated!

I'll get right to it.
I want to claim my girlfriends kids on my taxes, since I am the only one who makes any money. We haven't lived together in a year because the house we used to rent was foreclosed on so we had to move, we were paying rent and the owner wasn't paying the bank. She lives in a family owned house rent free, I send her roughly half of my income (witch is VERY LOW). Her ex - hubbie was claiming the kids but he died in June. I only made about 9,000 this year, due to losing a job and being on unemployment.

Now, I've been living off bare necessities for a while, I got my car stolen last year, and with my low income haven't been able to get another one, I also live in a rural area so jobs are scarce, if I could legally claim her kids im pretty sure it would give me a big enough return to purchase a vehicle, witch would in turn change my life around. I need a car to get to any type of a place of employment. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and the outlook is pretty bleak. If I could just claim them, get a couple thousands dollars and get a cheap-0 car I would feel like I had won the frickin lottery at this point.

Please, any input is much appreciated as I know pretty much nothing about taxes. I just wanna know if I can count on this money or if i shouldn't bother getting my hopes up. Any info ive left out that you wanna know i will tell just ask, and again thanks for wasting a few minutes of your life thinking about my problem.

reply to post by Bundy


I would say that you can indeed claim her kids IF you were the main financial support for them. The other "IF" is that if anyone else is claiming them (i.e. the kids father) then you can't claim them. Go on turbotax.com and look at their FAQs... I bet this question is covered there.

reply to post by Bundy


I claim my brother who is an adult,he doesn't work and I am his total support,therefore I can claim him on my taxes as a dependent.The rules of that are you have to have provided at least half of they're support through the year and they had to have lived with you for 6 or more months.There is also a top dollar amount they can not have made more than,but with Kids that is likely to not be an issue.I believe the dollar amount they can make is about $3000 per year.

Your issue is going to be the fact that the children and her have not lived with you for a year.I hope this helps and if you go to H &R block I believe they have free tax forms you can fill out.

If you haven't lived together in a year, then I wouldn't claim them on your taxes, because she will also claim them on HER taxes, and two different tax returns claiming the same children with the same SSNs will flag it as a fraud.

Besides, it doesn't appear that you can legally claim them since they haven't been around all year. It is not worth frauding the IRS for the piddly amount that you'll get. You can get hit a lot harder in fines that may take years to pay off if you're busted.

Don't do it, play it straight and just claim yourself.

reply to post by Bundy


Hey There, You would be filing Single and as Head of household. The dependents would have to have
lived with you for at least half of the 2013 tax year. The dependants would have to be Your Children ,related or a foster child/adopted, I believe they would have to be under the age of 19 or 24 if a student.
There is also a child tax credit for under 17 I believe.You yourself can not be claimed as a dependent by someone else.

So unfortunately, I believe the childrens mother can only claim them as a dependent. I could be wrong, and the above
is only intended as a general outline. I would suggest that you check the local library/Post office for the 2013 1040 or
1040 A tax booklet.The dependent qualifications are pretty staightforward. Or you could stop into an H&R Block type place
and ask a few questions. The children and their mother may be able to receive social security benefits from the deceased
father.
Sorry to hear your between a rock and hard place right now. Keep your chin up.

You don't mention this - but is there something preventing the MOTHER of the children from taking the deduction on her taxes? The Mother will most likely claim her own children on her own tax return as her dependents (rightfully so).

You have no legal standing to make that claim.

If they did not live with you in 2013 you have no right to claim them as your dependents - whether or not the father has died. You haven't adopted them, you are not currently supporting them. You have no legal basis for wanting to use them as deductions - other than you believe it will get you more money and a car.

reply to post by Rochester

Here is how you can claim the two dependents, or three including the mother.

1.)No one else can claim either people as dependents.
2.)The mother is not going to file taxes. She hasn't worked so she might not file.
3.)You have supported them for at least 6 months out of the year, and they have lived with you all that time.

If all of the above is true, sure, you can claim the children, and their mother!

reply to post by Bundy


So far you have gotten 5 dfferent contradictory answers. You deserve the horrid penalties and interest you are going to get hit with for asking for technical tax advice from a buch of anonymous people on a conspiricy web site. I'm a lawyer and I'm not sure enough of the answer to risk putting you in jeopardy. Obviously others don'tbody you can sue care that u can fmuch. Go ask someone you can sue for giving you a wrong answer that ruins your life.

reply to post by Bundy


You can't claim her kids based on information you gave.

Here's the rules:

You may be able to claim an unrelated child when both the child and their parent live in your household if the following requirements are met.

The parent is not required to file a tax return and if the parent does file it is for the refund of withholdings only
The child is a U.S citizen, U.S. resident alien, U.S. national or a resident of Canada or Mexico for some part of the year
The child lives in the household all year
You provide more than half of the support of the child
The parent had a gross income of less than $3,800 dollars in 2012

jacksonhewitt.custhelp.com...



Edit: Idea:

One trick you could look into is that you could talk your girlfriend into claiming her children and counting the money you have been giving he as self-employment income, which would make her qualify for the EIC credits. If she really loves you, which she must because you're sending her half your money, she can just give you the EIC credits at that point.

There may be tax implications for her in that case so you really need to read up on the tax ins and outs.

There's no excuse not to, all the information is on the internet.

She hasn't worked and will not file taxes. She owes the state money, it would be confiscated anyways.

I have provided the only money she's seen in almost a year. I don't make much money at all, I made about 2k a month before I was laid off. I really, really want to claim them, w/o claiming dependents, I will get next to nothing back.

I appreciate all the advice and thank you all for replying.

"The piddly amount" that I seek may be just that to you, whoever said that cant remember the name. But I cant do anything where I live without a car, and I don't have one, also, I have no family or friends that could loan me money. A car is the difference between a future job, or sitting here watching my unemployment go bye-bye in 2 months, then I really have no idea what i'll do.