Can a person claim HOH for their child and the other (boyfriend/Girlfriend) Living under the same roof Claim the same child if its theirs as well, for EIC and CTC?

[benbrig09]

Can a person claim HOH for their child and the other (boyfriend/Girlfriend) Living under the same roof Claim the same child if its theirs as well, for EIC and CTC?

[TaxMonkey · Accepted solution]

If parents live together then they cannot split benefits.

If they don't live together, the HoH and EIC remain with custodial parent, and custodial can release child tax credit to non custodial, but not EIC.

[benbrig09]

Thanks! Do you know where I can find this in the pub or on the IRS website so I can show my customers when this gets brought up. Thanks again!

[TaxMonkey]

How about Pub 501 - specifically the qualifying child of more than one person

Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit).

The child tax credit or credit for other dependents.
Head of household filing status.
The credit for child and dependent care expenses.
The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.
The earned income credit.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2018_publink1000220917

[benbrig09]

Thanks!