Can a girl claim her boyfriend's 3-year-old son on her tax return if he was living with them for more than 6 months out of the year and neither the father or the mother worked this year so they can't?

Answer 1

yes you can but if either one of them get a job and the next year want to claim their son one of you all is going to either go to jail or pay back some taxes so you should just leave it alone because unless they know that your going to do that its not a good idea Would it be alright if both of the parents agreed to it since they knew they couldn't claim him themselves? Sorry to dispute the info above - but: UNDER US TAX RULES, (which 99.9% of these Qs are about).

It must be a qualifying child. The tests below must be met. From the way you phrased the Q, I don't think you will qualify. The dependent child exeption is one of the easier ones for the IRS to confirm, even automatically. However, from what you said, you should check into filing as "head of household". Qualifying Child There are five tests that must be met for a child to be your qualifying child. The five tests are: 1. Relationship, 2. Age, 3. Residency, 4. Support, and 5. Special test for qualifying child of more than one person. Relationship Test To meet this test, a child must be: Your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, or a descendant (for example, your grandchild) of any of them, or Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant (for example, your niece or nephew) of any of them. Adopted child. An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term �adopted child� includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption. Eligible foster child. An eligible foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. The correct answer depends on where you live. In Australia a dependent is someone whom is dependent on you and if you are housing, feeding, clothing your spouse's (spouse is used for defacto relationships and married couples) son then he is your dependent. What are you claiming for the dependent? If it is just to put on your tax return to lessen your tax then yes you have one dependent. If it is for family tax benefits then the percentage of the time you and your spouse care for the boy can be claimed by you or your spouse, and the other percentage by the mother - not working doesnt affect this.