Can I claim all of these people on my taxes and if so what will happen?

Question

My fiance and I live together with our 3 children-one his, one mine and one ours. His brother also lives with us. I am the sole supporter of the family, except my fiance worked about a month, cut his finger off and recieved some workman's compensation. We are fighting for the rest of his settlement, but this shouldn't be resolved until sometime next year.

Anyway, he owes back child support on the child that lives with us, and has lived with us, for 3 1/2 years (we are fighting this too because it is bogus), but if I claim him and the kids can the government take my tax return because he owes past child support? I have heard that they can if we are married, but don't even know much about that. By the way, I haven't received a dime of support from her from the mother in all of those years.

Also, can I claim his brother since I support him as well (he is 24)?

Any help would be great!

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is a bit complex, so try to follow along.

You can claim your child and the child you had together. You can NOT claim his child from the prior relationship. That child is his qualifying child and that bars you from claiming the child even if your finace doesn't file or only files to receive a refund of taxes withheld.

You might be able to claim your fiance and his brother IF all of the following tests are met:

1. They are not the Qualifying Child of another taxpayer. (Probably OK there.)

2. The do not file a joint return with another taxpayer unless it was solely to receive a refund of all income taxes withheld. (I'll assume that they're not married to someone else so you'd be OK there.)

3. They lived in your household ALL YEAR. (You know how this one falls. All year means just that, not 364 days.)

4. You provided more than 50% of their support for the entire year. (You may lose your fiance here with the worker's comp payments as that is not support provided by you.)

5. They each had less than $3,400 in gross income from all sources. Exclude ONLY non-taxable Social Security from the gross income test. (If your fiance's wages plus workers comp exceeds $3,400 you'll lose him here as well.)

6. Your relationship is not illegal under local law. If there is a local ordinance that prohibits cohabitation, even if it's unenforced, the exemption claim will be denied.

Based upon your child and the child you had together you should qualify to file as Head of Household. This will save you some money.

You may also qualify for the EIC based upon those 2 children, depending upon your earned income.

Any back child support that your fiance owes can be capture from HIS refund only. When he files his return it's likely that he won't owe any taxes for just one month of working but the taxes withheld from his pay that would normally be refunded will be subject to capture. Your refund is safe.

Guess that covers it all. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

First, I would want to look at your income to see if the dependency exemptions are going to do you any good. If they are not going to benefit you, it would be better not to take the exemptions for the fiance or his brother and risk having your return examined.

1. The fiance. He worked a month, but did he receive $3,400 of wages? It is possible that his wages continued some time after his injury and before worker's compensation. If he received $3,400 or more of wages, you cannot claim him. If he does not have $3,400 of income subject to tax, and he lived with you all year, and you provided over half of his support, then you may be able to claim him. His dependency exemption will give you an additional $3,400 reduction in your taxable income.

2. Your own two children. No question that you can claim both children, as long as they are under 19 or under 24 and not full-time students, and did not support themselves. If you paid over half the cost of maintaining the household, then you will also be able to file as head of household based on the two children.

3. The fiance's child. You cannot claim your fiance's child. Only the fiance could claim this child, or if he waived the dependency exemption to the other parent, the mother could claim the child.

4.. The brother of the fiance. The qualifications to claim the brother are exactly the same as for the fiance.

5. The child support. If you claim your fiance as a dependent, it does not result in your refund being taken for his child support. However, if you were married it would be a different situation.

Answer 3

Let's take the people one at a time.

You can claim the two children who are your biological children, and if they are under 17 you can get a child tax credit for them.

You can't claim the child that is his but not yours. That child is his qualifying child under tax law, so can't be your dependent.

Your fiance - maybe. If his gross income for the year is over $3400, not counting the workman's comp, then no you can't claim him. If you didn't provide over half of his support you can't claim him - and the workman's comp DOES count what figuring support. If you can and do claim him, your refund can't be taken for his back child support.

His brother aged 24: if he lived with you ALL year, his income was under $3400, and you provided over half of his support, you can claim him. If he only lived with you part (even most) of the year, or had income of $3400 or more, you can't. I suppose it would be a silly question to ask why his 24 year old brother is not supporting himself.

Good luck.

Answer 4

You can find the answer in Pub 17 on the irs.gov website. It is best left to a professional if you do not understand who qualifies as a dependent. (And I don't mean H&R Block other other national chains.) Is the child support part of a court mandate? If so, you should notify them that you are not being paid. I guess it is not clear how many people are involved here. If he is your fiance, does he really owe you child support? If he wins a settlement which at best will be less than $50,000 after the lawyer gets his share, are you going to take the support and break up? Your marital status is what you are on Dec 31. This is what I IRS goes by. They will not take your return because he owes child support. They would take his return and give it to you if he owes child support. If his brother is old enough to work, tell him to get a job or get out. I hope this helps but I am a little lost tracking the people involved.

Answer 5

no, you can claim a 24 year old unless you have something
in writing that he cannot be legally responsible for himself
and you are the guardian.

Your fiance has to file his own income tax with his ONE
child

You have to claim your own income tax with your ONE
child.

You have to decide which one claims the OUR child,
you both can't.

Why does he owe back child support and if he has
custody why isn't he getting child support?
Yes the government can take HIS tax return and pay
for the back support.

In the eyes of the law you are NOT married and cannot
file jointly unless you have court papers stating that you
have guardianship for your fiance and his child and his brother.

Answer 6

Until you are married to your fiance you cant claim him and none of his family since you are not legally related.
Once you are married, your husband can claim his brother as long as the brother doesn't have his own income above the threshold amount. you don't have to worry about his child support since the refund would be going to you and your husband not the brother.
In the meanwhile your fiance can claim his children and his brother till you're married.

Answer 7

you will probably be able to claim head of household

you can claim your bio children if their father's aren't claiming them. If the fiance's child's mother doesn't have a legal right to claim the fiance's child, your fiance is probably going to fill in his own tax form, so let him claim the child...but do check the definition of a qualifying child, if you can prove you've contributed 50% of the child's support, you may be able to claim him.

as to the fiance's brother and the fiance, if they earned less than $3300 and have lived with you all year, you may be able to claim them. again check the qualifying relative definition.

as to the fiance owing back childsupport, you aren't married to him and you aren't filing jointly with him so they won't take your refund to repay his debt. (After you marry him, until you get the IRS back child support thing worked out, I wouldn't file jointly with him)

Starting in January, most public libraries have free tax advice and assistance available to the public. I'd look into that if I were you, they'd be able to give you more accurate advice than you'd probably get here.

Good Luck!

Answer 8

talk to a tax accountant - that's a very complicated situation you have

Answer 9

In this scenario you can all share the same cell.The law is the law and sometimes doesn't address reality.Stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell everybody to get a grip!---and a job.