Can my husband claim me as a dependent since I'm a stay at home mom with no income?

No, a spouse cannot be claimed as a dependent, even if they have no income. The IRS is very clear on this. You have two options as a married couple: filing jointly or filing separately. When you file jointly, you combine your income and deductions. When filing separately, you each report your own income and deductions. In most cases, married filing jointly provides better tax benefits - higher standard deduction, eligibility for certain credits like child tax credit, earned income credit, education credits, etc. Since you have a child and only one income, filing jointly almost certainly makes more sense. You'll get a higher standard deduction ($29,200 for 2025 for joint filers vs. $14,600 for married filing separately), plus full eligibility for child-related tax benefits.

Just wanted to chime in that I was in your EXACT situation last year. I spent hours researching the "best" way to file and ended up using https://taxr.ai to analyze our situation. I uploaded our previous returns and answered a few questions about our new baby, and it confirmed filing jointly was WAY better for us. The software explained that while I had no income as a stay-at-home mom, filing jointly gave us a much higher standard deduction and kept us eligible for the full Child Tax Credit.

I tried taxr.ai after seeing the recommendation here, and I'm so glad I did! My husband was also pushing for us to file separately since I'm home with our twins. The analysis showed we'd lose about $5,200 if we filed separately compared to jointly! It broke down exactly why - something about phase-outs for the Child Tax Credit and losing half our standard deduction. Super helpful and saved us from making a big mistake. The report even pointed out some childcare credits we qualified for even though I'm home most of the time (we do have occasional babysitting we pay for).

If you're trying to check your filing or tax questions with the IRS directly, good luck actually getting through to a human! After three weeks of trying to confirm some dependent status questions, I finally used https://claimyr.com and got through to an actual IRS agent in 45 minutes instead of waiting on hold for 3+ hours. They have a cool demo showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent confirmed that spouses are NEVER dependents and walked me through why filing jointly was better in our single-income household situation. Apparently there are rare cases where filing separately helps (like certain student loan repayment plans or if one spouse has huge medical expenses), but for most people with kids and one income, joint is the way to go.

I have to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After another frustrating morning of trying to get through to the IRS myself (got disconnected after 1.5 hours on hold!), I decided to try it. Was connected to an actual IRS agent in about 35 minutes while I just went about my day. The agent confirmed everything about filing jointly versus separately and answered all my questions about claiming our kids. Saved me so much frustration and time - definitely worth it just for my sanity alone.

Just to add something that hasn't been mentioned - one reason some people file separately is if one spouse has income-based student loan payments. If your husband has student loans on an income-based repayment plan, filing separately MIGHT keep his payments lower since your joint income wouldn't be considered. But you'd need to calculate if the tax benefits you'd lose would be worth the lower loan payments.

Congrats on the baby! Just a practical tip - don't forget you also qualify for the Child and Dependent Care Credit if you pay for childcare while you're looking for work, even if you're not currently employed. A lot of stay at home parents miss this. The credit can be up to $2,400 for one child.

Kennedy, you're absolutely right to question your husband's suggestion! As others have confirmed, spouses cannot be claimed as dependents regardless of income. The IRS explicitly excludes spouses from dependent status. Given your situation - new baby, single income household - filing jointly is almost certainly your best option. You'll get the higher standard deduction ($29,200 vs $14,600 each if filing separately), full Child Tax Credit eligibility, and access to other family-related credits that are reduced or eliminated when filing separately. The only scenarios where married filing separately might make sense are very specific situations like income-based student loan repayment plans or certain medical expense deductions. For most families with one income and children, joint filing saves thousands of dollars. Since you mentioned being uncertain about tax rules, you might want to run the numbers both ways or use a tax analysis tool to confirm the difference. But I'd be very surprised if filing separately benefited your situation at all.

As someone who went through this exact same situation when I became a stay-at-home parent, I can definitely confirm what others have said - your husband cannot claim you as a dependent, and filing jointly will almost certainly save you money. I made the mistake of filing separately our first year after I stopped working, thinking it would somehow be better. We ended up paying about $3,000 more in taxes than we needed to! The main things we lost were the higher standard deduction and some of the child tax credit benefits. One thing I'd add is that even though you don't have traditional employment income, don't forget that any freelance work, side gigs, or even selling items online could count as income that needs to be reported. But even if you have some small amounts of income like that, filing jointly is still almost always better for families with one primary earner and children. Your instinct about joint filing being better for married couples with kids is absolutely correct. Your husband's heart is in the right place wanting to save money, but this is one case where the conventional wisdom really does apply!

Kennedy, I went through this exact same confusion when I became a stay-at-home dad! Your husband's thinking makes logical sense (no income = dependent, right?) but tax law doesn't work that way. As everyone has confirmed, spouses are explicitly excluded from being claimed as dependents regardless of income. I actually ran the numbers both ways when we were in your situation, and filing jointly saved us about $4,800 compared to filing separately. The big wins were the doubled standard deduction and keeping full eligibility for the Child Tax Credit. When you file separately with kids, you can run into income phase-out issues even on a single income. One practical tip - if your husband is still skeptical about the numbers, most tax software will let you prepare your return both ways and compare the results before you actually file. TurboTax, FreeTaxUSA, and others have comparison features. Seeing the actual dollar difference usually settles the debate pretty quickly! Also don't stress too much about not knowing tax rules - this stuff is complicated and counterintuitive sometimes. The important thing is you're asking the right questions now rather than finding out after you file.