Qualifying Child question

[Car Guy]

Infant son born in 2020 lives with Mom and Dad in the same household. Mom and Dad have never married. Dad has highest AGI and pays more than 50% of household costs. Dad filed as HOH and claimed son for EIC but not for CTC or Child Care Credit. Can the mother claim the CTC and the Child Care Credit? Under the Tie Breaker rules the mother is not entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child for EIC, but does she lose the other tax benefits as well?

[TAXOH · Accepted solution]

No.  You can't split the tax benefits since they live together 

[BobKamman]

IRS Pub 501:

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, generally 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).
1. The child tax credit or credit for other dependents.
2. Head of household filing status.
3. The credit for child and dependent care
expenses.
4. The exclusion from income for dependent
care benefits.
5. The earned income credit.
The other person can’t take any of these
benefits based on this qualifying child. In other
words, you and the other person can’t agree to
divide these tax benefits between you.

[Car Guy]

Thank you! That's what I thought, but it is critical to enter the status of the dependent correctly to prevent the Mom from claiming tax benefits that she is not allowed.

[TaxGuyBill]

Just to clarify ... the Tiebreaker Rules only apply if BOTH parents try to claim the child.

If the parents agree, either one of them can claim the child (along with all benefits).  So it is ideal to test it both ways to see the best overall result.

And why would the dad not have claimed the Child Tax Credit?  If that was not claimed, he probably should amend is tax return.