"Dependent already claimed for earned income credit" Help please!

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 16, 2025
1 reply
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My significant other and I have 2 kids together. We are unmarried and live together with other family. We both had entered both of our kids on each of our returns to compare which would benefit us the best. We agreed to claim one child each on our return. He submitted his return first with both kids as in dependents section but clicked that the other parent (me) will be claiming one of the kids. I submitted my return after and received email that my return is rejected due to dependent already claimed for earned income credit. Is this because my partner had both kids on his return even though he claimed only one as his dependent and marked off that the other dependent will be claimed by the other parent?

Does he need to amend his return and completely take off the dependent that I am suppose to claim? Should I wait to re-file my return until he amends his return or can I go ahead and submit my return?

Sorry in advance for so many questions, but just want to get more clarity since it is now past the deadline.

Not A Product Question

Vanessa A

Yes. Because the kids live with you both for the entire year, when he said you would be claiming the other child, he was treated as the custodial parent and you were treated as the non custodial parent.

He can amend his return to change this so you can then claim your child and get the EITC.

Do be aware, that if you are both claiming head of household, it could come back at you because in order to claim head of household you must pay OVER half of the cost of the home. If you are both claiming head of household for the same home you both cannot pay OVER half of the costs of the home. So be sure that you both do not say that you are.

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xmasbaby0

Employee

Going forward---

If you are a non-married couple who live together with your children, then only one of you can claim the child(ren) and the one not claiming the child does not enter anything at all on their tax return about the child. The “sharing” of child-related credits you may have heard about is only possible between divorced or never married parents who live apart and share custody and who have a written agreement to share the credits. The child’s SSN can only be entered on one tax return. Any other return with the child’s SSN on it will be rejected. If you are a family, then work out how to share the refund between yourselves.

And....if you decide to "each" claim one child-- as @Vanessa A Vanessa A pointed out, you cannot both use the Head of Household filing status. Only one of you can say you paid over half of the costs of running the household. So one of you files Single and claims a child, one files HOH and claims a child. Or....one of you claims both children as explained above.

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**