TRUE or FALSE??

[John of PA]

A taxpayer can claim his girlfriend as a dependent, AND file as Head of Household, even though she is not related to him. She is 24 and has no earnings, and lived the entire year with him, and has never been married.

[Harvey Lucas]

True if....

I say true..if GF qualifies as a "qualifiing relative"...ie..lives in his home for entire year...he provides over 50% of support...she has less than $3200 of gross income...if all that is true, then he is H of H and he can claim GF as dependent.

[pmedders]

False -

Client can claim girlfriend as dependent, but not file as HOH. See TB 3-13. Can not file HOH if taxpayer paid over half the cost of keeping up home in which the taxpayer lived but the person is a qualifying relative only because he or she lived with taxpayer for all of 2005.

[Unregistered]

False

Dependent exemption yes, HOH no - she is not a qualifying relative

Profit

[jainen]

False

False on both counts. There is no indication at all that he either supported her or paid over half the costs of keeping up the home.

[Bees Knees]

A taxpayer can claim his girlfriend as a dependent, AND file as Head of Household, even though she is not related to him. She is 24 and has no earnings, and lived the entire year with him, and has never been married.

Assuming he provided over 50% of her support and she lived with him the entire year and she is not a qualifying child of another taxpayer and her income is less than $3,200, and their relationship is not in violation of local law, then YES, she is his dependent.

But despite what QF says in Tab 4, she CANNOT qualify him for HOH if she is not his daughter, stepchild, foster child, sister, stepsister, granddaughter, or niece, etc.

[John of PA]

Thank You

Thank you so much all of you. Sounds like bottom line is if she's not related, she cannot be used to justify HofH. There was a time when questions like this were simple. Best wishes to all.

[John of PA]

One other point

thanks again that was helpful. Client has been fighting me on this because he ran the scenario through Turbo Tax software and said Turbo Tax said he can file HofH. Thats a whole different discussion for after April 15th. Funny my software is made by the same company (Intuit/Lacerte). Thanks again.

[jainen]

claim Head of Household

>>Turbo Tax said he can file HofH<<

I use Proseries and Lacerte, both made by Intuit, and either one would allow Head of Household for this client. I could even do the return by hand, and still claim Head of Household!

[Koss]

Defective software?

I use Proseries and Lacerte, both made by Intuit, and either one would allow Head of Household for this client. I could even do the return by hand, and still claim Head of Household!

That's pretty disturbing. In spite of all the complexity and disagreement over UDC, everyone--including Jainen and me--agrees on this one. Yes to the dependent, but no to HoH for a qualifying relative that has no blood or legal relationship.

The algorithm isn't that complicated. If Intuit got it wrong in both the consumer and professional versions, there's going to be some major fallout over the next six to nine months as the IRS disallows the HoH filing status for those taxpayers. For consumers who used TurboTax, if the user accurately input the relationship to the dependent (i.e., none or other), and the program inaccurately allowed HoH, then Intuit may be on the hook for penalties and interest associated with this error.

Burton

[jainen]

Bummer

>>accurately input the relationship <<

You mean I can't just let the software make all the decisions? Bummer.

[jainen]

I did NOT

>>everyone--including Jainen and me--agrees on this one<<

I did NOT agree. Based on the information in the original post, which is all we have, I don't see any way he can claim the girlfriend. Check my post.

[BOB W]

Hoh

My program (CS) does not make an the election based on dependents claimed with special coding of those dependents. I have to make that choice before I enter dependent info. I have no experience with consumer programs related to the question/answer portion of those programs.

Are you saying that a diagostics report will pose an error message on this issue?

[Koss]

Dependent

>>everyone--including Jainen and me--agrees on this one<<

I did NOT agree. Based on the information in the original post, which is all we have, I don't see any way he can claim the girlfriend. Check my post.

Okay, I made an assumption that you did not make.

I think you will agree that if the guy provided more than half of her support, then he can claim his girlfriend as a dependent under the qualifying relative rules. The original post did not say this, but it did say that she had no income. If I was interviewing the client, I would have asked the support question. Here on the board, dealing with hypothetical clients, I think it was a reasonable inference.

Burton

[jainen]

a reasonable inference

>>a reasonable inference<<

Certainly, but I just couldn't pass up such an open opportunity to be persnickety. Not only did John of PA leave out any mention of support or household costs or other household members, he did not even state that the girlfriend had no income.