My girlfriend and I live together with our two kids. I can only claim one of them as a dependent.

She is a stay at home mother and takes care of the kids during the day while I work and pay all the household expenses.

I will file my 2008 taxes as HoH with 1 dependent. Can I claim a child care exemption since my girlfriend cannot work because that essentially IS her job? If so, how much? The going rate here seems to be about $125/week for a child her age.

Thanks.

No - you can claim child care deduction only if you pay someone to take care of a dependent child. See:

Publication 503 (2007), Child and Dependent Care Expenses

Since you are not paying your GF to watch after your dependent child, you can't take the deduction.

I am curious as to why you think you can claim only one child as a dependent. Your post would indicate that you are the biological father for both children.

Further, since you seem to be the sole income earner, and assuming you provide total support for your girlfriend and the second child, it appears that you CAN claim BOTH the second child AND your girl friend as dependents on your tax return, even if you are the biological of only of the children.

If this relationship has been going since before 2005 under the conditions of your original posting, and you have been claiming only ONE child as a dependent, you need to amend your 2005, 2006 and 2007 return to claim both the other child and your girl friend as dependent.

Email me at [email protected] for further details.

I am only biologically and legally the father of the child that we share. And to make matters more complicated, she is still married (3 year divorce and counting). She has a part time job and claims one of the kids.

I would love to be able to claim them all. Is there somewhere that I can check to see if I legally can?

You can find the criteria in Chapter 3 of IRS Pub 17.

Here is the criteria for claiming the non-relative child:

1) You provided a home for the child for ALL of 2008.

2) You provided more than half of the child's total support in 2008.

3) The mother agrees to allow you to claim the child (this is not really a legal requirement, but if she objects to you claiming the child, the IRS WILL side with her).

To claim your GF, she cannot have earned more than $3,500 at her part-time job in 2008.

Another consideration is whether she qualifies for the Earned Income Credit. If so, having HER claim one or both children could result in a significantly HIGHER tax refund for her, high enough to make it worthwhile for you to forego claiming your child and simply filing as SINGLE instead of HoH.

The only way to know for sure is to model each situation using tax software and compare the results. This is something that the tax professional you use should do as a matter of routine.

As a follow up, I did my 2008 taxes with projected data (did not submit) via TurboTax.com and based on their guidelines I was able to claim my girlfriend's son as a non-family dependent, taking the dependent deduction but not the child credit. I was not able to claim my girlfriend because she earned too much and will need to file her own tax return. I will benefit more from taking the deduction as her return goes to pay a defaulted student loan.

Thanks for the guidance and the extra grand!

Steve:

Do her return with her claiming one and two children to see how much EIC she will get.

Granted, the refund goes to satisfy the student loan, but that will happen every year until that loan is paid off, so, long-term, she may want to claim one or both children to get that loan paid off quicker.

Just a thought!