Can I claim my 15-month-old as a dependent on taxes with zero income as a stay-at-home mom?

So I'm in a bit of a confusing situation with tax season coming up. I had my daughter in October 2023 and I've been staying home with her since then. Her father and I are together but we're not married and his name isn't on the birth certificate (someone told me we needed to be married first for that?). I have absolutely no income from last year - I've been a full-time stay-at-home mom while my boyfriend works and supports us financially. I'm wondering if I can still claim my daughter on my taxes and get any kind of child tax credit even though I didn't earn anything? Or does her dad have to claim her since he's the one with income? I'm really confused about how this works when only one parent has income and we're not married. Also, does it matter that he's not on the birth certificate for tax purposes? Any help would be really appreciated because I have no clue how this works!

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19 comments

JaylinCharles

•8M

The short answer is that you need income to benefit from the Child Tax Credit. However, there's more to consider in your situation. Since you don't have any income, you won't benefit from claiming the child tax credit yourself, as the credit can only reduce taxes you owe (and with no income, you don't owe taxes). The child's father, who has income, would likely benefit more by claiming your daughter as a dependent on his tax return. For a child to be claimed as a dependent, they must meet the qualifying child test, which includes living with the parent for more than half the year. The birth certificate doesn't actually matter for tax purposes - it's about who provides support and where the child lives. Since you're living together and he's providing financial support, he should be eligible to claim your daughter. If you file a tax return with no income and claim your daughter, you wouldn't receive any benefit, while he would lose out on potential tax savings by not being able to claim her.

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JaylinCharles

•8M

That's correct. Since you don't have income to offset with the tax credit, there's no financial benefit for you to claim your daughter. The tax system is designed to provide relief to those with tax liability, and unfortunately, with no income, you don't have any liability to reduce. Yes, the father can absolutely claim her even though he's not on the birth certificate. The IRS is concerned with the support test and residency test, not legal documentation like birth certificates. What matters is that he lives with and helps support the child. The birth certificate may come up if there's ever an audit, but he can prove his relationship in other ways.

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Eloise Kendrick

•8M

I was in almost the exact situation last year and found this great service called taxr.ai that really helped me figure out the dependent situation with my kid. I was staying home with my 2-year-old while my partner worked, and I was super confused about who should claim her. I uploaded my situation details to https://taxr.ai and their AI analyzed everything and explained that since I had no income, I wouldn't benefit from the Child Tax Credit at all. It saved us from making a costly mistake because my boyfriend was able to claim our daughter and got back almost $2,000 in tax credits! The system walks you through all the qualifying tests for claiming a dependent and makes it really clear what your best option is.

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Eloise Kendrick

•8M

For 50/50 custody situations, it's incredibly helpful. The tool asks about the custody agreement, which parent provides more financial support, and even tracks the exact number of nights with each parent if needed. It then applies the IRS tiebreaker rules to determine who has the stronger claim. My friend used it for this exact situation and it helped them avoid a major disagreement. The AI isn't guessing - it's applying actual tax code rules to your specific situation. It's trained on thousands of tax scenarios and IRS regulations. While it doesn't replace a human review for complex situations, for dependent questions like this, it's incredibly accurate. I double-checked its recommendations with a tax preparer later and they confirmed everything was correct.

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Freya Collins

•8M

Ok I need to admit I was wrong about taxr.ai. After my skeptical comment I decided to try it since my situation with my niece living with me part-time was confusing me. The system actually walked me through exactly what qualified as "support" and how many days she needed to live with me to claim her as a dependent. I was shocked when it showed me I could claim her as a qualifying relative (not qualifying child) which I had no idea about! It saved me from missing out on a huge credit. The explanation was way clearer than what I got from TurboTax or even the IRS website. Just wanted to follow up that it actually works really well for dependent situations like the original poster's.

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LongPeri

•8M

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LongPeri

•8M

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Sara Hellquiem

•8M

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Charlee Coleman

•8M

Quick clarification on something others haven't mentioned - even though you don't have income, you and your boyfriend aren't married, so he can't file as Head of Household unless he meets other requirements. But he can still claim your daughter as a dependent if he provides more than half of her support! Also, if you file your own return (even with $0 income) and claim your daughter, and then HE claims her too, the IRS will reject the second filed return and it gets messy. So definitely coordinate on who's claiming her.

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Charlee Coleman

•8M

Actually no, that's a common misconception. To qualify as Head of Household, you need to be unmarried, pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home, and have a qualifying person live with you for more than half the year. While the child qualifies, the girlfriend does not count as a qualifying person unless she's a qualifying relative (which is unlikely given the relationship). The boyfriend is supporting the girlfriend, but she isn't considered a dependent for Head of Household purposes. He can still claim the child as a dependent and get the Child Tax Credit, but would likely file as Single unless he has another qualifying person for Head of Household status.

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Ava Kim

•3M

Just wanted to add some practical advice from someone who went through this exact situation. Since you and your boyfriend live together and he's supporting both you and your daughter, the smartest move financially is definitely for him to claim her on his taxes. But here's something important to consider for the future - you might want to think about getting married or at least getting his name on the birth certificate. While it doesn't matter for taxes right now, it could matter for other things like medical decisions, social security benefits if something happens to him, or custody issues if you ever split up. Also, even though you can't benefit from tax credits this year, you should still keep track of any expenses related to your daughter (medical bills, childcare if you ever use it, etc.) because these records might be helpful when you do start working again. And don't forget that you can start contributing to a Roth IRA once you have earned income - even small amounts can really add up over time for your future! The birth certificate thing is easy to fix in most states even if you're not married, so that might be worth looking into for peace of mind.

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