If two single people (never married) have a child and live together,
providing equal support for that child, can they both claim head of household
status?
Only the person who paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home
for the year would qualify for the head of household filing status. If both
people paid exactly the same amount, neither would qualify for the head of
household filing status. Please refer to Publication 501, Exemptions,
Standard Deduction, and Filing Information, for more information.
2.3 Filing Requirements/Status/Dependents/Exemptions: Dependents & Exemptions
My husband and I have provided a home for my niece and her son for
the past seven months. She receives no child support from her ex-spouse, and
she does not work or have any income of her own. Can I claim her and her son
as dependents?
Your niece doesn't need to live with you for the entire year in order to
be claimed as a dependent. She meets the first of five dependency exemption
tests, which is the relationship test. She must still meet the other four
dependency exemption tests.
Citizenship test.
Joint return test.
Gross income test.
Support test.
Your niece's son did not live with you for the entire year and does not
meet the relationship test. Therefore, he cannot be claimed as a dependent.
Refer to
Publication 501,
Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing
Information, for more information.
8.3 Earned Income Tax Credit: Other EITC Issues
If both parents want to claim the Earned Income Credit, who is entitled
to it if there was no marriage?
If the child is a qualifying child of both parents, they may choose which
one will claim the credit. If there are two qualifying children, each parent
may claim the credit on the basis of one of the children or one parent may
claim the credit with both children. If both actually claim the credit on
the basis of the same child or children, the parent who is entitled to the
credit is the parent with whom the child lived for the longest period of time
during the tax year, or the parent with the higher Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
if the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time during the
year.
Refer to Publication 596, Earned Income Credit, for full
discussion of the Earned Income Credit rules.
