hello YouTube thank you for joining me
today in today's short video I'll be
talking about a very common question
that i keep getting over and over and
over again on my channel and that is can
i claim my girlfriends kids on my tax
return i've also heard the same question
asked from the girlfriends perspective
she asked can my boyfriend claim my kids
on his tax return? that's what we're
talking about today so stay tuned
I am mkay the cpa and along with my
sidekick Chipper we teach you things
that you were not taught in school such
as finances investing taxes and so much
more now this particular video we're
going to be talking about taxes but just
so you guys know we make new videos
every single week for you guys these
videos are going to save you the time
and frustration of trying to figure this
stuff out on your own so if you're new
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subscribing okay like I said we're going
to be trying to figure out if you can
claim your girlfriend's kids on your tax
return now this is a really sticky type
of question okay this is a hot audit
button honestly so you really want to
understand the rules and the fact that
pertain to your particular situation so
in many instances are in most cases you
will not be able to claim your
girlfriend children on your tax return
however there may be a few exceptions to
that if the your facts and circumstances
lined up so that's what we're going to
look at today the first thing I want to
point out to you guys is we're really
talking about qualifying I don't know if
you guys can see this we're really
talking about qualifying child rules
versus qualifying relative ruled now
qualifying child rules has its own set
of rules I already made a video on that
so I'm going to link it up right here
there are down in the description below
I mean so go check it out if you have
not watched it already you kind of have
to know the differences between the two
set the rules now more importantly I'm
going to be linking a link in the
description down below that's going to
take you to the IRS Publication 17 and
that's going to answer a lot of the
questions you have it also has many
different examples including worksheets
to calculate a support test what the
qualifying relative rules are etc etc
now I'm going to be making a video in
the future that goes much more into
detail and all this stuff however me
being a tax accountant and it being a
lot of today april ninth and the tax
deadlines april eighteenth i am strapped
on time guys I am I don't even know how
i'm making this video I I probably
should do in taxes like right now I'm
not even joking anyway now let's let's
talk about you
all fine relative rules a little bit all
right there's a lot more to consider
when you're trying to claim somebody who
is not related to you now if you were
married this would not be an issue you'd
be able to claim them no problem right
but because you're not married that
where you have some issues so there's
some things you really need to consider
because like I said this is a hot I Bush
IRS really looked at this stuff closely
because there's so much fraud around
people claiming people they're not
really supposed to be claiming and
chipper has has had his own encounters
with this okay the first thing I want
you guys consider before trying to do
too much research on this is ok you want
to claim your girlfriends kids my
question for you is can your girlfriend
already claimed her kids as a qualifying
child on her tax return now notice I
said can she I didn't say will she but I
said can she because if she can you're
at a lot you cannot claim her children
if she can claim them as her qualifying
children there's like I said there's
only a few few very rare exceptions
where that would not be the case and
that's where you would be able to blame
them so that's number one the second
thing for you guys consider is since
these are not your kids is their child
support agreement in place or their
child custody agreements in place in the
decree a lot of times if there is a
child custody agreement or support
agreement it will spell out who gets to
claim that child on our tax return so
these kids of your girlfriends their dad
might be able to claim them depending on
the circus the facts and circumstances
of your situation so you have to
consider that the third thing I really
want you guys to consider do have these
kids lived with you for the whole year
now under the qualifying child rules
they only have to live with you if
they're a qualifying child but only have
to live with you for more than half a
year well since these kids are not
technically related to you at least not
yet because you're not married they
would have to have live in your
household the whole year so if you if
they have not lived in your house the
whole year
you're not going to be able to claim
them number four a lot of people have
asked also asked me besides the whole
you know can I claim these kids type of
thing is you know can't can I look up
online to see if their social security
numbers then claims and the answer is
unfortunately knew if I could if people
could do that people will be claiming
people left and right so the IRS does
not allow you to see that however one
thing you can do if you're on if you if
you do believe you can claim your grill
French children based on the qualifying
relative rules and by looking at all the
rules then if you file are each other if
you prepare your return electronically
in tax software if if it will allow you
to do the check efile do the check efile
function and a lot of times the return
will not eat file if somebody else has
already claimed that child under their
social security number so if you can do
the check a file on your return it will
often tell you whether or not that
person has been claimed you might even
just ask if if you're thinking about
claiming them make sure nobody else is
otherwise you are going to get a letter
from the lovely IRS and 0 is not
wonderful all right another thing to
consider is you do not want to claim
head of household for these children if
you're going to try to claim them you do
not want to claim the filing status
because since these kids are not related
to you they're not technically your kids
you would not be able to claim the head
of household filing status so you want
to claim a single status or another type
of status the reason I bring that up is
because one of my viewers recently tried
to claim that status on his girlfriend
kids and now he's getting letters in the
mail from the IRS and that I told them
they're probably going to disallow it so
be prepared alright guys i'm gonna start
wrapping up this video right here I know
it's short I know I couldn't give you a
yes or no answer on this particular
question which is what you really need
to do is go look an IRS website and
start applying your facts to those rules
and see if it lines up and see if it
makes sense this whether or not you can
claim them based on your
your life circumstances in situation
that's what you need to do if you learn
something new here today don't forget to
hit the like button down below before
you leave I would really appreciate it
also if you have questions or comments
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over there and I'm going to leave some
of my other videos down here that you
can click on especially if you're on
your cell phone and as always I hope you
guys have a fantastic week it was great
hanging out with you here again on
YouTube but until next time always
remember to take this information and
use it to live your life on gauged
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