Current Events > Any tax preparers on here?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have a few questions regarding filing. Trying to figure out the best way to go about this since I have a daughter and gf. We all live together.

1. Whenever my gf inputs her salary and how much she paid in taxes, she comes out to about -$500 right off the bat. Which tells me she underpaid somehow. I don't understand how. Is it because of not claiming our daughter yet while having the health insurance plan of her + our daughter? I didn't think that was a thing, but her parents suggested that. I want to just move our daughter to my plan, but we chose her plan in the beginning because it was cheaper.
2. If I fill out my information, I stand to earn money back (without even claiming our daughter) so that makes me want to let her claim our daughter so that she can get money back instead of owing (we normally would just split the money from our daughter anyway). But I'm concerned about the Advanced Child Tax Credit. I claimed our daughter for last year's return, so I received the advanced tax credit. If I don't claim her this year, I would have to pay that back right? I wanted to claim her for 6 months and let my gf claim her for 6 months (an option I saw back with Credit Karma Tax), but I didn't see that as an option on FreeTaxUSA or Cash.app tax (don't like the idea of using cash.app, but considered it since it would have all of my Credit Karma filings). Is filing half and half an option in our situation?
3. I don't understand head of household. I think from what I read, it's not a situation that would apply to us. I recall reading about this in the past and figured it doesn't apply. But one thing I read made me think it does. Would it apply in a situation of a couple living together and sharing a child, but both of the adults are independent?

So Im a CPA, take that as you will.

1. The simple answer is that enough tax wasnt withheld from her pay through the year. As you mentioned, that might be a case of her filing a W4 with her employer for withholding purposes which accounted for your daughter as a dependent, but if you are claiming her for the year on your filing then she wouldnt be entitled to the tax benefit and would have had to have more tax withheld.
2. Claiming half and half on a dependent isnt an option. Either you claim her as a dependent for the full year and your GF doesnt, or she does and you dont. Some of the tax softwares will walk you through questions to determine what option would make the most sense, but ultimately its an all or nothing. As for the child tax credit, youre kinda right. If you received the credit through the year but then didnt claim her as a dependent for your filing, you would have to pay that back. The rules generally dictate that whomever the child lived with for the majority of the year should claim the dependent, but ultimately the IRS mostly just cares that you dont have 2 returns trying to claim the same dependent. In your case since you all live together, you could feasibly pick and choose who claims.
3. HoH status applies with 3 basic rules: 1) you must either be single or unmarried (divorced) on the last day of the year. 2) You must pay for half of the costs of keeping up the home for the year. So if someone lives with parents and isnt paying for their own house/rent, they wouldnt be able to take HoH status. 3) Your qualifying dependent must have lived with you for more than half of the year.

It kinda sounds to me based on the fact patterns youve mentioned that HoH would likely apply to you (unless your GF makes more money and contributes more to the household costs), and Id recommend that you claim your daughter and your Gf does not.

Thanks for the answers. Sounds like it's probably best for me to claim. And I'll definitely seek out the head of household thing again. I definitely make more than her. My salary is almost twice as much as hers now although we started off near the same. That was the reason I claimed our daughter the first time. I read that it's better for the person who makes the most money to claim, although maybe it wouldn't make a difference in some situations. I just wish I put our daughter on my insurance.