What does [violate local laws mean] in claiming my girlfriend on my federal taxes?

What does [violate local laws mean] in claiming my girlfriend on my federal taxes?


Where do you see violate local laws on the Federal Income Tax return?

The 'violate local law" provision is a somewhat antique citation within the Internal Revenue Code that has never been updated to reflect modern views on cohabitation.

To my knowledge, the IRS has NOT denied a dependency exemption of a girlfriend or boyfriend based on the fact that their cohabitation violated local law, at least not for the past 30 years or so.

However, they HAVE denied joint married returns when the couple failed to provide a valid marriage license and did not live in a state that had a common law marriage law.