Discussion:Can my client claim his girlfriend as a dependant?
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Discussion Forum Index --> Tax Questions --> Can my client claim his girlfriend as a dependant?
| 21 June 2007 | |
| I have a client who lives with his girlfriend whom he has 2 children with. She earned only $1,700 during the year. He provided the rest of her support. May he claim her as a dependant and file as Head of Household? | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 21 June 2007 |
| Discussion: Claiming girlfriend as dependent or for more good reading, type 'girlfriend' in the search box to the left of this question. | |
| 21 June 2007 | |
| The quick answer is yes, assuming she lived with him the entire year and they do not live in a state in which cohabitation is illegal. The link provided by D&T should provide more details. | |
| 21 June 2007 | |
| girlfriend doesn't qualify him as HH, though. Need to look closer at that and do the search that DT recommended. It is so easy to search. | |
| 21 June 2007 | |
| Kevin, if the kids are his children (that's how I read the original post) and they live with him, the kids will qualify him as HOH. | |
| 21 June 2007 | |
| in this one client's case, yes. But in the scheme of "girlfriend dependent" questions, not always so. | |
| 21 June 2007 | |
| The girlfriend as dependent and the HOH status are actually 2 separate issues. My quick yes answer was based on the circumstances presented by the OP. Kevin is correct that similar but not identical circumstances may not yield the same answer. My reading of the first message is the same as Jdugan's. | |
| 13 February 2008 | |
| Old discussion and yes I've read all the others. Why does this have to be so hard. I get the part that if there are children involved and those are children of the girlfriend then they would not qualify the TP for either dependency exemptions (because they are her qualifying children even if she has only $2,000 of income)or HOH. However, if TP meets all of the other requirements and the girlfriend does qualify as a qualifying person, what keeps HOH out of the equation (the TP met all requirements of HOH - US citizen, unmarried, > half cost of keeping up home that was home for > half the year for QP, and can claim exemption for QP). What have I missed? | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 13 February 2008 |
| Read Quickfinder Page 4-8: "However, for HOH purposes two types of QRs don't count: (1) a person who is a qualifying relative only because he or she was a member of the taxpayer's household the entire year." #2 is someone claimed on a multiple support agreement. | |
Taxestaxes (talk|edits) said: | 13 February 2008 |
| I agree with LJACPA, why does this seem so hard to comprehend sometimes? I had a single parent, who has 2 children (24 & 22) and they did not work, plain and simple!! NOt in school either, so she can claim them and file HOH....she has had prior taxpreparers not let her do this because of the age of the kids and them not being in school? Now she wants me to go back and amend prior years..... | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 13 February 2008 |
| I agree with Tsquared: the taxpayer's qualifying relative who is a dependent would put her in HOH land. | |
Jameskoinis (talk|edits) said: | 13 February 2008 |
| Why don't we try reading Publication 501 before we do anything to rash...
Also on page 8 of Publication 501 there is an example that tells you that a girlfriend is not a qualifying person for head of household purposes. Same goes for her children unless they are the taxpayers. | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 13 February 2008 |
| We have two threads running here: Dusty and I are talking about TaxesTaxes. The change that happened in 2005 was eliminating HOH from those who had an adult child at home that they could not claim as a dependent, but under prior law qualified them for HOH.
There is nothing that prohibits HOH if the QR is a dependent, with the exceptions of those I listed above. In the case of the boyfriend above, I agree, he cannot be HOH because the kids are not his children. And before loving publications, IRS' Notice 2008-5 was issued to correct misinformation in last year's publications. | |
