Tax filing advice for unmarried stay at home mom - who claims our child?

You've got a few options here, and understanding them will help maximize your tax benefits as an unmarried couple with a child. Since you have zero income, you're not required to file a tax return. However, your boyfriend has several potential filing statuses. As the income earner living with you and your child, he may qualify for Head of Household status, which provides better tax rates and a higher standard deduction than filing as Single. For your son, whoever claims him could potentially receive significant tax benefits like the Child Tax Credit (worth up to $2,000) and potentially the Earned Income Credit. Since you have no income, it makes more sense for your boyfriend to claim your son as this will result in actual tax benefits. You can't benefit from these credits with zero income. Your boyfriend cannot claim you as a dependent unless you meet certain criteria - primarily that your gross income is less than $4,400 (for 2024) and he provides more than half of your support. As a student with no income who he's supporting, you might qualify.

After reading through all the comments, I wanted to share my experience with a similar situation. I was totally confused with tax filing last year as my partner and I are also unmarried with a little one. I found this AI tool at https://taxr.ai that analyzed our situation and recommended the optimal filing strategy. It walked me through all our options - who should claim the child, what credits we qualified for, and even estimated the difference in refund amounts between different filing approaches. The tool asked about our living situation, who pays what percentage of expenses, and then gave clear recommendations. What I appreciated most was getting a personalized recommendation rather than general advice that might not apply to our specific circumstance.

Just wanted to follow up and say I finally tried out that taxr.ai site after being skeptical. It actually saved us over $3,700 in our situation! My partner and I weren't sure who should claim our daughter, and it turns out we were filing completely wrong the past two years. The analysis showed that with my partner's income and our living situation, we qualified for credits we didn't know about. It also confirmed that I should be filing a return even with minimal income, which I didn't realize before. The recommendations were super specific to our situation, not just generic advice. Definitely worth checking out if you're confused about the unmarried parent filing situation - it compares different scenarios side by side to show which gives the biggest refund.

If you're having trouble reaching the IRS to get clarification on your filing situation (which I did with a similar unmarried parent scenario), try Claimyr at https://claimyr.com. They got me connected to an actual IRS representative in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for weeks. You can see how it works in their demo video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was skeptical at first because I'd spent hours on hold with the IRS and kept getting disconnected. But Claimyr uses some call technology that holds your place in line, then calls you when an IRS agent is about to answer. My specific question was about who should claim our son since my partner and I both work part-time and share expenses. The IRS agent I spoke with was able to walk through our specific situation and confirmed the correct way to file to maximize our refund.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After struggling for another week trying to get through to the IRS about our unmarried filing status questions, I gave in and tried it. Within 20 minutes I was talking to an actual IRS representative who answered all my questions about our situation. The agent confirmed that in our case, since I provide more than half the support for our household despite making less than my partner, I could file as Head of Household and claim our child. This was completely different from what we'd been doing and is going to increase our refund by almost $4,000 this year! Sometimes I'm too stubborn for my own good. This was absolutely worth it and saved me hours of frustration.

Kinda related question - I'm in a similar situation but my girlfriend and I alternate years claiming our daughter. Is that even legal? We've been doing it for 3 years and never had an issue but now I'm wondering if we're doing it wrong.

One thing nobody has mentioned yet - look into whether you qualify for the Child and Dependent Care Credit if you're taking classes. If you're going to school to be able to work, and your boyfriend is paying for childcare so you can attend classes, he might be eligible for this additional credit when he claims your son.

I was in a very similar situation last year! My partner and I aren't married, I stayed home with our 18-month-old while taking online courses, and he was the sole income earner. Here's what we learned after consulting with a tax professional: Your boyfriend should definitely claim your son as a dependent - this will unlock the Child Tax Credit ($2,000) and potentially the Earned Income Credit depending on his income level. Since you have no income, these credits would be wasted if you filed. For Head of Household status, your boyfriend needs to provide more than half the cost of maintaining the household AND have a qualifying person (your son) living with him for more than half the year. If both conditions are met, HOH gives him a much better standard deduction than filing single. Regarding claiming you as a dependent - this could work in your favor! If your boyfriend provides more than half your support and you made less than $4,400 (which you did with $0 income), he can claim you too. This increases his standard deduction even more. Don't forget about education credits! If he's paying for your school expenses and claims you as a dependent, he might qualify for the American Opportunity Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit, which could be worth up to $2,500. The key is to make sure only one person claims each dependent and that all the IRS tests are met. Document everything - who pays what bills, childcare costs, education expenses, etc. - in case you ever need to prove the dependency claims.