How to file taxes as a stay at home parent with no income? Partner supports us but we're not married.

First, let me just say it's super common to be confused about this! When it comes to your situation, there are a few important things to consider. Your partner can potentially claim you as a dependent if you meet the qualifying relative tests - which includes having less than $4,800 in income for 2024 (which you mentioned you do) and having your partner provide more than half of your support. For your children, the key is who provides more than half their support and where they live. Since you mentioned your partner supports the household financially, they could potentially claim the child you have together. However, for your child from a previous relationship, it gets trickier. Even with no income, you could still file your own return and claim the children if they qualify as your dependents by living with you for more than half the year. This might be more beneficial overall since you could qualify for tax credits like the Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit.

After dealing with a similar situation last year, I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out the optimal filing strategy. I was so confused about who should claim what with our blended family, and the standard advice online wasn't really covering our specific situation. When I uploaded our documents to taxr.ai, it analyzed all possible scenarios and showed me that splitting the dependents actually saved us almost $3,200 more than having my partner claim everyone. It highlighted tax credits I didn't even know we qualified for! The tool even created detailed documentation to back up our filing choices in case of questions from the IRS.

I was super skeptical about taxr.ai at first, but after our complicated tax situation last year with my boyfriend's kids and my own child, I decided to try it. I couldn't believe the difference it made! I learned that my boyfriend could claim his son while I claimed my daughter, AND we could structure things to maximize the child tax credit for both kids. The most helpful part was the detailed explanation about the "qualifying child" rules - turns out we were leaving about $2,700 on the table with our previous filing approach. The documentation it created was super helpful when we got a letter from the IRS asking for more information about our dependents. Saved us so much stress and money!

If you need to talk to the IRS about your specific situation (which might be smart in your case), I strongly recommend using https://claimyr.com to actually get through to a human at the IRS. I spent WEEKS trying to call about a similar dependent situation and kept hitting dead ends. With Claimyr, I got through to an actual IRS agent in under 20 minutes who walked me through exactly how to handle my unmarried partner claiming my child as a dependent. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - seriously saved my sanity during tax season. The IRS agent confirmed that in our case, my partner could claim my child since he provided over 50% support, even though we weren't married.

OK I need to publicly eat my words. After posting my skeptical comment, I was desperate enough to try Claimyr because I needed to sort out my dependent situation before filing. I couldn't believe it actually worked! They got me through to the IRS in about 35 minutes (which is basically light-speed compared to my previous attempts). The IRS agent walked me through all the tests for qualifying dependents and confirmed that my girlfriend could claim her child while I claimed the child we have together - exactly our situation. The agent also explained how we needed to coordinate our filing to avoid rejection. Without that call I would have definitely filed incorrectly. I've been telling everyone I know who has tax questions about this service.

Since you mentioned having no income, consider having your partner file as Head of Household if possible. They would need to have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home where you and at least one of the qualifying children lived for more than half the year. This filing status has better tax rates than filing as Single. Definitely run the numbers both ways though - sometimes it's better for the person with no income to file and claim the kids to maximize credits, with the working partner filing as Single. It really depends on your specific situation and income level.

Just to add a practical tip - make sure whoever claims the kids has their Social Security numbers correct on the tax return. The IRS automatically checks this, and if the numbers don't match their records, it will trigger a delay or rejection of your return.

This is such a tricky situation, and you're definitely not alone in being confused! From what you've described, there are actually several ways you could handle this, and the "best" approach depends on running the numbers. Since your partner is providing all the financial support, they could potentially claim you as a qualifying relative (you'd meet the income test with $0 earnings and the support test). For the children, it gets more complex - your 2-year-old with your current partner would likely qualify as their dependent, but your 6-year-old from a previous relationship might still be better claimed by you since you're the custodial parent. One important thing to consider: even with zero income, you can still file a tax return and potentially receive refundable credits like the Additional Child Tax Credit. Sometimes this results in a better overall tax situation for your household than having your partner claim everyone. I'd strongly suggest running calculations both ways - having your partner claim everyone versus you filing separately and claiming the kids. The IRS Publication 501 has detailed dependency tests that can help you determine who qualifies to claim whom. Don't forget about the Child and Dependent Care Credit too if you're planning to return to work and will need childcare!