Married filing separately - which spouse should claim our child for tax benefits?

For married filing separately couples with a child, the general rule is that the parent who provides more than half of the child's support and has the child living with them for more than half the year has the right to claim the child. From your post, it sounds like that's you since you took time off to care for the baby. When it comes to maximizing tax benefits, there's an important consideration: the Child Tax Credit begins to phase out at higher income levels. For 2025 filing, that starts around $200,000 for most filers, but for married filing separately, the phase-out begins at $120,000. Your wife's income is below that threshold, but much closer to it than yours. With your income at only $16,000, you would likely qualify for more of the credit. Additionally, your lower income might make you eligible for other credits that are income-based, like the Earned Income Credit (though this one specifically isn't available to MFS filers). I'd recommend running the numbers both ways in tax software before filing to see which configuration gives the better overall result for your household.

After struggling with a similar situation last year (MFS due to student loans), I found https://taxr.ai super helpful for sorting through this exact issue! I uploaded our W-2s and answered a few questions, and it showed us exactly who should claim our daughter to maximize our refund. In our case, having the lower-income spouse claim our child resulted in about $900 more in our combined refunds versus having the higher earner claim her. The analysis showed it was because of exactly what the previous commenter mentioned - the Child Tax Credit phase-out thresholds for MFS filers. The tool also helped us figure out how to handle other deductions like mortgage interest and property taxes, which was confusing when filing separately.

I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and it was honestly such a relief! I've been doing the MFS thing for 3 years because of my massive law school loans, and every year I stress about whether I'm making the right choice on who claims our kid. The analysis showed that I (lower income spouse) should definitely claim our son, which saved us about $1,150 compared to having my higher-earning husband claim him. What was really eye-opening was seeing exactly how the Child Tax Credit phase-out affected our situation with real numbers. It also confirmed we're still better off filing separately despite losing some deductions, at least until I qualify for forgiveness in 4 more years. That peace of mind was worth it!

If you're filing MFS and dealing with complex situations like this, you might also run into problems reaching the IRS if you have questions. I was stuck in a similar situation last year and couldn't get through to the IRS for weeks. I finally found this service called Claimyr at https://claimyr.com that got me connected to an IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c showing how it works. The IRS agent I spoke with actually gave me some specific guidance for my MFS situation that none of the online articles mentioned. Apparently, there are some special considerations for the Child Tax Credit when you're MFS that most tax software doesn't explain well.

I was totally skeptical about Claimyr (from the comment above) but I was desperate trying to figure out my MFS child claiming situation. I couldn't get through to the IRS for THREE DAYS straight. Honestly, I'm shocked it actually worked. Got connected to a real IRS agent in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed that in my case (very similar to yours with MFS and income disparity), having the lower-income spouse claim our child was significantly better. She explained that with MFS status, the Child Tax Credit phase-out thresholds are different, and running both scenarios through their system showed about a $1,200 benefit by having the lower-income spouse claim our child. She also clarified some MFS rules about splitting itemized deductions that I had completely wrong.

One more thing to consider - if you claim the child, you might qualify for Head of Household filing status instead of Married Filing Separately, which has better tax rates and a higher standard deduction. But there are strict requirements: 1. You must have paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home 2. Your spouse cannot have lived in the home during the last 6 months of the year 3. Your home must be your child's main home for more than half the year If you lived together all year, you won't qualify for HOH. But if you were separated for part of the year, it might be worth looking into.

Just wanna mention - my ex and I alternated years claiming our kid when we were dealing with student loans and MFS. So one year she'd claim the kid, next year I would. Our tax guy said this was totally fine as long as we both agreed and it helped maximize our refunds over time. Maybe that's something to think about for future years?

Based on your situation, you should almost certainly claim your child on your return rather than your wife claiming him. Here's why: With your income at $16,000 and your wife's at $105,000, you're in a much better position to benefit from the Child Tax Credit. For married filing separately, the Child Tax Credit begins phasing out at $75,000 of adjusted gross income, so your wife would still get the full credit, but you're so far below that threshold that you'd definitely get the maximum benefit. More importantly, with your very low income, you might also qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit (the refundable portion), which could give you money back even if you don't owe any taxes. This is huge when your income is this low. Also consider that you took unpaid leave specifically to care for your child - this strengthens your position as the primary caregiver from the IRS perspective, which matters for the dependency claim. I'd strongly recommend using tax software to run both scenarios (you claiming vs. your wife claiming) to see the actual dollar difference, but in most cases with this large of an income gap, the lower-income spouse claiming the child results in significantly better overall tax benefits for the household.