Is it possible for my Fiancé to claim my child as a dependent on their tax return?

For your fiancé to claim your child as a dependent, several requirements need to be met under the "qualifying child" or "qualifying relative" tests. Since you're not married yet, your fiancé would need to pass the "qualifying relative" test for your daughter. Here's what would need to be true: 1) Your fiancé must provide more than half of your daughter's total support for the year, 2) Your daughter's gross income must be less than $4,500 (for 2025 filing), 3) You cannot claim the child as a dependent yourself, and 4) Your daughter must have lived with your fiancé for the entire year. The biggest challenge here is that the IRS typically gives preference to biological parents. Even though your fiancé provides more financial support, you as the biological parent would generally have the stronger claim, especially if you're filing as Head of Household. Both of you cannot claim her in the same tax year - that would definitely trigger problems with the IRS. If you decide your fiancé should claim her, you would need to explicitly not claim her on your return, and you might need to fill out Form 8332 (Release of Claim to Exemption).

I was in a similar situation last year and found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that really helped me figure out my dependent situation. My girlfriend moved in with her son, and I was supporting them financially but wasn't sure about claiming him on my taxes. I uploaded our financial documents and answered a few questions, and it gave me a super clear breakdown of whether I qualified to claim him as a dependent. What I liked most was that it explained all the qualifying tests in plain English and calculated exactly how much of his support I was providing based on our specific numbers. It even showed me the tax benefit difference between her claiming him versus me claiming him. That way we could make the best financial decision for our household overall without worrying about getting in trouble with the IRS.

I was super skeptical about taxr.ai at first (as you can see from my comment above), but I decided to try it since my situation with my stepkid was complicated. I was really surprised by how thorough it was! It didn't just ask yes/no questions - it had me upload actual documents and receipts for childcare, medical expenses, school costs, etc. The analysis showed that while I was paying for a lot of things, I was actually just shy of the 50% support threshold needed to claim my stepchild. This probably saved me from an audit since I was planning to claim them. It also showed exactly what additional expenses would put me over the threshold if I wanted to qualify next year. Really helpful for planning purposes and the peace of mind was worth it.

If you're having trouble figuring this out and need to talk to the IRS directly (which I highly recommend for dependent situations), try Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS about a similar dependent situation last year - kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. With Claimyr, I got a callback from the IRS in about 15 minutes instead of waiting on hold forever. The agent walked me through exactly what documentation I'd need to prove my fiancé was providing enough support to claim my son. They even have a demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent actually told me that dependent claims between unmarried couples are one of the most common audit triggers, so getting official clarification before filing saved us a potential headache.

I need to apologize for my skeptical comment earlier. After continuing to get nowhere with the IRS for weeks about my refund issue, I was desperate enough to try Claimyr. I honestly thought it would be a waste of money. I was shocked when I got a call connecting me to an actual IRS agent after about 40 minutes (not 15, but WAY better than the 3+ hours I'd wasted before). The agent was able to tell me exactly why my refund was delayed (an identity verification issue) and helped me resolve it on the spot. For the original poster - the IRS agent I spoke with confirmed that in unmarried couples, the biological parent generally has priority for claiming dependents UNLESS there's a signed form 8332 releasing the claim. So definitely get that sorted before filing!

Just wanted to throw in my two cents as someone who's been in this exact situation. My now-husband and I lived together for 4 years before getting married, and he supported me and my twins financially. We found that the most important thing was making sure we didn't BOTH claim the kids. The IRS will definitely flag that and both returns will get held up. What worked best for us was: 1. I signed Form 8332 releasing my claim 2. He claimed the kids and got the tax benefits 3. I still filed as Head of Household (you can do this if you provide over half the cost of keeping up a home for yourself and a qualifying person) The year we did this, our combined tax benefit was about $3,200 better than when I had claimed them the previous year. Just make sure you're keeping records of who pays for what in case you ever get questions from the IRS.

One thing no one's mentioned yet - if you guys are getting married next summer, would it be before or after December 31st? Because your tax filing status is determined by your marital status on the last day of the tax year. If you're getting married before the end of 2025, then you'd be filing as married for that whole year anyway, and this becomes a non-issue since you'd likely file jointly and claim the child together.