Who should add our newborn baby as the dependent on taxes? First-time parents confused

Congratulations on your new addition! This is a great question that many unmarried parents face. The IRS has specific rules about who can claim a child as a dependent, but in your situation where you're both parents living together, you have some flexibility to choose what works best financially. Since you both provide support for the child and live together, you'll want to look at which of you would benefit more from claiming the dependent. The parent who claims the child can access several tax benefits including the Child Tax Credit (worth up to $2,000), the Earned Income Credit (if you qualify based on income), and potentially filing as Head of Household (which gives better tax rates and a higher standard deduction). Since your incomes are similar, I'd recommend doing a "test run" of your taxes both ways - once with you claiming the child and once with your girlfriend claiming the child - to see which scenario results in the lower overall tax burden for your household combined.

After dealing with a similar situation with my ex, I found this tool that was super helpful - https://taxr.ai - it helped me figure out the best way to handle our dependent situation. You upload your documents and it analyzes everything to show you which scenario saves more money - you claiming vs your partner claiming. I was surprised to find out that even though I paid all the health insurance, it actually made more sense for my ex to claim our son because of how it affected her tax bracket and some credits she qualified for that I didn't. The tool breaks down all the different credits and deductions so you can see the actual dollar difference.

Just wanted to update after trying the taxr.ai thing someone mentioned above. It was actually really helpful! I uploaded our W-2s and answered some questions about our situation, and it showed us that we'd save about $1,850 if I claimed our daughter instead of my boyfriend because of how it affected my student loan interest deduction and some other credits. The breakdown was super clear - showed exactly which tax benefits were affected by who claimed her. Definitely recommend for anyone in a similar situation. We were going to just have him claim her since he pays most expenses, but turns out that would have cost us money overall!

If you're having trouble reaching the IRS to get clarification on dependent rules (which I did last year), try Claimyr.com - https://claimyr.com - it got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I was trying to resolve a dependent dispute with my ex. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I had been trying for WEEKS to get through on my own - kept getting disconnected or told to call back later. Claimyr got me to a real person who walked me through exactly who could claim our kid based on our custody arrangement. Saved me from potentially getting audited because both of us were planning to claim him!

Ok I need to apologize to whoever recommended Claimyr above. I was super skeptical but I was desperate about my audit notice so I tried it yesterday. I'm shocked to say it actually worked??? After trying for literally 3 months to reach someone at the IRS. Got connected to an agent in about 25 minutes who was able to help me sort out my dependent issue with my ex. Turns out we both claimed our son last year which triggered the audit, but the agent helped me understand the tiebreaker rules and how to fix it. Saved me from what would have been a giant headache.

Another thing to consider is the Head of Household filing status. If one of you qualifies to file as HOH by claiming the baby as a dependent, that could save a lot more than just the child tax credit. To qualify, you need to: 1) Be unmarried on the last day of the year 2) Paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year 3) Have a qualifying dependent (your baby) The tax brackets for HOH are better than filing as Single, plus you get a higher standard deduction. Worth looking into!

Has anyone dealt with the healthcare premium tax credit in this situation? My boyfriend and I are having a baby next month and we get our insurance through the marketplace with a subsidy. We're trying to figure out if claiming the baby will affect our subsidy amount.

Congratulations on your new baby! As someone who went through this exact situation a few years ago, I can share what we learned. The key thing to understand is that since you're unmarried, you both technically qualify to claim your daughter, but only ONE of you can actually do it each tax year. Given that your incomes are similar ($58k vs $62k), the decision should come down to who gets the bigger tax benefit. Here are the main things that will be affected by who claims her: 1. **Child Tax Credit** - Up to $2,000 per child 2. **Child and Dependent Care Credit** - If you're paying for childcare 3. **Earned Income Tax Credit** - This phases out at higher incomes, so might benefit the lower earner more 4. **Head of Household filing status** - Better tax brackets and higher standard deduction than filing single Since you pay for health insurance, that shows you're providing support, but it doesn't automatically mean you should be the one to claim her. The person who gets to file as Head of Household will likely see the biggest benefit. My advice: Use tax software to run both scenarios before you file. See what your combined tax liability looks like with each of you claiming her, then go with whichever saves your household the most money overall. You can also alternate years if that works better long-term. Just make sure you communicate clearly about who's claiming her each year - the IRS will flag duplicate claims and that creates a headache for everyone!