How to claim our newborn on tax return for maximum child tax credit?

Congratulations on your new baby! This is a great question and definitely worth planning ahead. Since you don't have income, you can't claim the Child Tax Credit yourself - you need earned income to benefit from it. Your girlfriend would likely benefit more by claiming both you and the baby if she qualifies to file as Head of Household (which she might if she provides more than half the household expenses). For her to claim you as a dependent, your income needs to be under $4,700 for 2025, and she must provide more than half of your financial support. As for claiming your child, the parent who the child lives with more than half the year typically claims them (which sounds like both of you equally). The Child Tax Credit is worth up to $2,000 per qualifying child for 2025 with up to $1,600 being refundable. Your girlfriend's income of $65k is well within the limits to receive the full credit. Regarding her unfiled past returns, she should get those filed ASAP. The IRS can hold current year refunds if there are unfiled prior returns, and she might be missing out on refunds from those years too.

I went through something similar last year with my partner and newborn. After spending hours trying to figure this out myself, I finally used https://taxr.ai to analyze our situation. You upload your docs and answer a few questions about your household, and it tells you exactly how to file for maximum benefits. In our case, it showed that my partner should claim our baby and file as Head of Household, which got us almost $3k more than we would have received otherwise! The system specifically caught that we qualified for the Additional Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Credit in a way I hadn't realized. It basically does what a tax pro would do but for way less hassle. You might want to check it out before making any decisions.

I tried taxr.ai after seeing the comment above and wow - it actually found a significant error in how I was planning to file taxes with my girlfriend and our twins. We were going to split the kids (each claim one) but the analysis showed we'd get almost $4,200 more if she claimed both kids and filed Head of Household while I filed single! The system explained that because of the income difference between us, the child tax credit phases out for me but she gets the full amount. Plus she qualified for EITC with the kids when I didn't. It laid everything out clearly with side-by-side comparisons of each scenario. Seriously impressed with how user-friendly it was. Wish I'd known about this for the last couple of years!

Just wanted to add something important - if your girlfriend hasn't filed taxes in several years, she needs to handle that ASAP! I was in a similar situation and couldn't get through to the IRS for weeks until I found https://claimyr.com. Their service got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes instead of waiting on hold for 3+ hours. The agent helped me set up a payment plan for my unfiled returns and explained which years I should prioritize filing first. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c This matters for your current situation because the IRS can hold up your current year refund (including those child tax credits you're counting on) if there are unfiled prior returns. I learned this the hard way last year!

I have to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway because I was desperate to resolve an issue with a missing refund from 2023. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes (after spending literal DAYS trying on my own over several weeks). The agent helped me track down my missing refund and explained that it was held up because of a discrepancy they found. We fixed it on the call and my refund was released literally the next day. For anyone dealing with unfiled returns like OP's girlfriend, definitely worth using this to get it sorted out before filing this year's return. The agent I spoke with was actually super helpful once I finally got through to them.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - if your girlfriend claims Head of Household with your child as her qualifying person, she'll get a significantly better tax bracket than filing as Single. In 2025, HOH filing status has wider tax brackets and a higher standard deduction ($20,800 vs $14,600 for Single filers). Also worth noting that if she qualifies for Earned Income Credit with a qualifying child, that could be worth up to $3,995 depending on her exact income. This is ON TOP OF the Child Tax Credit everyone's been mentioning. All these credits and deductions could potentially mean several thousand dollars more in her refund!

Just a warning - if your girlfriend hasn't filed in "a few years" she needs to get caught up before claiming these credits. The IRS is cracking down HARD on unfiled returns, especially when people suddenly file claiming refundable credits like the Child Tax Credit. Has she been getting notices from the IRS about unfiled returns? If she was working W2 jobs, even small ones, the IRS knows about that income. If they're already processed substitute returns for her, it can complicate things. The IRS can hold your current refund until all prior required returns are filed. Don't let that catch you by surprise when you're counting on that money for a house!