EIC -Boyfriend/Girlfriend Live Together

[zeros]

Boyfriend ($45K) and girlfriend ($15) live together and recently had a child. Girlfriend would qualify for a nice EIC amount if she was eligible. Boyfriend pays the upkeep of the house. I'm thinking she would, no way, be eligible for this credit. Everybody agree?

[TaxGuyBill]

Why would she not qualify? From what you described, she would qualify.


It sounds like the child would meet the tests, so unless they both try to claim the child, the mother can do it.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p596/ar02.html#en_US_2013_publink1000297706

On the other hand, if the father claims the child, he could claim Head of Household, and he is also in a higher tax bracket than the mother. You can run it both ways to see which way works better.

Edit: I just looked it up and the EIC is a $3250 credit. Wow. It would work best if the mother claimed the child.

[Will]

Boyfriend ($45K) and girlfriend ($15) live together and recently had a child. Girlfriend would qualify for a nice EIC amount if she was eligible. Boyfriend pays the upkeep of the house. I'm thinking she would, no way, be eligible for this credit. Everybody agree?

Nope. They can decide who claims the child and, if qualified, gets the EIC. If, and only if, they cannot agree, then the boyfriend gets the child.

[Nashville]

Tiebreaker

Nope. They can decide who claims the child and, if qualified, gets the EIC. If, and only if, they cannot agree, then the boyfriend gets the child.

If all the facts are known, I'm not aware that ANYONE can decide who is going to claim a child for purposes of EIC. If the child in question is the natural child of the father as well as the mother, than he has the tiebreaker because he makes more money.

If all the facts are NOT known, for example, the natural father is long gone and out of communication, then the mother doesn't really KNOW whether he is making more money or not, plus he is not supporting the household so the tiebreaker situation doesn't even exist.

[David1980]

The tie-breaker between two parents only applies if both actually claim the child. Otherwise they can choose.

The confusion I think is because if a non-parent was involved it would be different. If two brothers lived together with one son, the non-parent would only be able to claim his nephew if the non-parents AGI was higher than the parent's. That exception only applies for non-parents though. Parent/parent, they can choose.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/152#c_4_C and http://forum.thetaxbook.com/showthre...ry-Tie-Breaker