Relative Claimed My Dependant

[MikeMay215]

I had a child in 2018. My daughter lived with me and her mother until December 27th 2019. Up until that point I had always filed head of household and provided sole financial care for the mother and child. We never married.

We broke up and she left.
I was awarded custody in Court the first week of March 2020.

I own my own small business and just went to file taxes. I was to owe around 5k. It bounced back because someone else claimed my daughter who has been living with me this entire time. Now I owe around 9,500.

I called the other family and it turns out daughters mother had her brother, who works, claim both her and the daughter and they received not only Tax Credit Money back , but also the stimulus money.

I was told by my accountant and lawyer there's not much I can do , but I did research and it says I will have to prove she lived with me the majority of 2019. She's only 1 so there's not much documentation. Her medical records and insurance come back to her mother and grandmother's address though because that's where she was living when she got pregnant and we never switched it. Birth Cert and Social Security Card Comes back to my address. I am listed as Father.

Worst of all the child's mother is not receiving any of the money. They are holding it because they are letting her live there. I have still been financially supporting her weekly.

What will be the outcome of this? Has anyone experienced this? Will I have to hire an attorney?

I am in Pennsylvania.
I do not have alot of records as the child is only 1 year old.

I am resending the return in by mail.

 

[FlyingRon]

You accountant and attorney are idiots. While you can not file if there's already a filed return claiming the same person as a dependent, you can certainly file and claim her. The IRS will send both (all) parties who claim it a "what gives?" letter asking to verify that you legally can make the claim. If nobody relents the IRS will investigate. Showing the child is your legally "qualifying child" will thwart anybody else's claim to her as a dependent.

As for the stimulus, all too new, but likely they'll end up being dunned for any money received and you should get what you were due.

 

[MikeMay215]

You accountant and attorney are idiots. While you can not file if there's already a filed return claiming the same person as a dependent, you can certainly file and claim her. The IRS will send both (all) parties who claim it a "what gives?" letter asking to verify that you legally can make the claim. If nobody relents the IRS will investigate. Showing the child is your legally "qualifying child" will thwart anybody else's claim to her as a dependent.

As for the stimulus, all too new, but likely they'll end up being dunned for any money received and you should get what you were due.

Thanks for getting back so quickly. Now they do have some documentation showing that the child lived with them during 2019 and my custody order didn't go into effect until 2020. The form of proof she has is the medical bills which always were in the maternal grandmothers address because the newborn was covered medically that way. But she has always lived at my house with me. Birth and Social Security card go back to my address.

Do you think I have the upper hand in this situation?

 

[FlyingRon]

Actually, they don't need proof she lived with them since he is the uncle, but he does have to show:

1. That she isn't someone else's (i.e. your) qualified child.
2. That they provided the requisite support.

If you can show that #1, it matters not what they claim.

 

[MikeMay215]

They will definitely try to claim that she had the child all year or most of it and that they provided for her. She truthfully lived with me all year long. The only time she stayed at that address was from 12-27-19 to 3-6-20 off and on. I am just worried they will get away with their lie due to the medical records being at their address.

With the issue of who's qualified child up for debate. Do I have an upper hand that the birth certificate comes back to my address, the child was claimed on the previous years return, I am in fact the biological father, and I currently have primary custody of the child?

I have little to no other documentation due to the fact she is only 1 year old? Do you think I will come out on top of this one?

 

[FlyingRon]

I have no idea what the nonsensical "birth certificate comes back to my address."

You can certainly show plenty of proof that the child resides with you. The custody is part of it, just about anything else (school or day care records, etc...) that shows she resides there will work. See the stuff in this document: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14815.pdf

 

[LdiJ]

I had a child in 2018. My daughter lived with me and her mother until December 27th 2019. Up until that point I had always filed head of household and provided sole financial care for the mother and child. We never married.

We broke up and she left.
I was awarded custody in Court the first week of March 2020.

I own my own small business and just went to file taxes. I was to owe around 5k. It bounced back because someone else claimed my daughter who has been living with me this entire time. Now I owe around 9,500.

I called the other family and it turns out daughters mother had her brother, who works, claim both her and the daughter and they received not only Tax Credit Money back , but also the stimulus money.

I was told by my accountant and lawyer there's not much I can do , but I did research and it says I will have to prove she lived with me the majority of 2019. She's only 1 so there's not much documentation. Her medical records and insurance come back to her mother and grandmother's address though because that's where she was living when she got pregnant and we never switched it. Birth Cert and Social Security Card Comes back to my address. I am listed as Father.

Worst of all the child's mother is not receiving any of the money. They are holding it because they are letting her live there. I have still been financially supporting her weekly.

What will be the outcome of this? Has anyone experienced this? Will I have to hire an attorney?

I am in Pennsylvania.
I do not have alot of records as the child is only 1 year old.

I am resending the return in by mail.

Here is what you need to do:

You need to file a paper return, claiming your child and all tax attributes regarding your child. The IRS will give you your refund, and probably your stimulus as well. That means mailing in the tax return.

Later on down the road, the IRS will investigate the duplicate claim of your child and will make the person who shouldn't have claimed the child, pay back the excess refund with interest and penalties.

In your case, it shouldn't take much investigation, as you are a parent and the other person is not. The other person would have the higher burden of proof due to the tiebreaker rules.

You do not need an attorney at this point.

 

[Zigner]

It kind of sucks when you commit fraud ("The form of proof she has is the medical bills which always were in the maternal grandmothers address because the newborn was covered medically that way") and then it causes problems for you down the road, huh?

 

[davew9128]

It kind of sucks when you commit fraud ("The form of proof she has is the medical bills which always were in the maternal grandmothers address because the newborn was covered medically that way") and then it causes problems for you down the road, huh?

This isn't necessarily fraud. Entirely possible that grandmother's insurance covered mother, and therefore also the daughter during delivery.

 

[cbg]

It's even possible that the grandmother's health insurance covered the granddaughter even after birth. The law requires that parents be allowed to cover their children up to age 26 regardless of the child's dependent or marital status; it does not require that it cover the children of those under-26 children, but it does not prohibit it either and some employers do.

 

[Zigner]

This isn't necessarily fraud. Entirely possible that grandmother's insurance covered mother, and therefore also the daughter during delivery.

It's even possible that the grandmother's health insurance covered the granddaughter even after birth. The law requires that parents be allowed to cover their children up to age 26 regardless of the child's dependent or marital status; it does not require that it cover the children of those under-26 children, but it does not prohibit it either and some employers do.

That is true - that is an aspect I hadn't considered, although there would be no reason for the child's address to necessarily be that of the grandmother.

 

[cbg]

The computer system that we use for insurance and other information has some limitations. While it can be done, it's rather a lot of work to convince the system to accept a different address for a dependent than for the subscriber. Unless it is a situation where the subscriber to the insurance (in this case the grandmother) and the dependent(s) (in this case the daughter and granddaughter) do not speak or, alternately, are in completely different states (Massachusetts and Arizona, for example) we will push back a little if requested. If the grandmother and the daughter are on good speaking terms, they might all share the same address in the computer system used by the insurance information just because that's easier in the HRIS.

 

[MikeMay215]

The mother lived at Home with the grandmother at the time she started seeing the doctor. Neither were covered under my job.

I don't think I committed any type of fraud, but she never told them she moved in with me. Either way they both lived in my house since birth up until the last month of 2019.


The Uncle is the one who claimed her not the mother , so is the child automatically my qualified child die to tie breaker rules because I am the blood parent on the Birth Cert.

Will determining residency be the determining factor here?

I found this online:

"Under the Tie Breaker Rule, the child is treated as a Qualifying Child by:

The parents, if they file a joint return;

The parent, if only one of the persons is the child’s parent;

The parent with whom the child lived the longest during the tax year, if the child’s parents don’t file a joint return;

The parent with the highest adjusted gross income(AGI) if the child lived with each parent the same amount of time during the tax year, and they don’t file a joint return together;
The person with the highest AGI, if no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child;"

 

[FlyingRon]

The "tie breaker" is a red herring, if I understand your question.

The two people attempting to claim the child are you (the father) and the uncle. The tiebreaker rule is for resolving who can have the child as a qualifying child if more than one person who is able to do that does. This is not the case here. She can NOT be the qualifying child of the uncle, only a qualifying relative. If she can be the qualifying child of another person, then she can NOT be a qualifying relative.

As you've been told twice, FILE your return on paper. When the IRS asks, send them whatever info that backs up your claim. Again, I gave you lists of things that the IRS likes to see.

 

[LdiJ]

The "tie breaker" is a red herring, if I understand your question.

The two people attempting to claim the child are you (the father) and the uncle. The tiebreaker rule is for resolving who can have the child as a qualifying child if more than one person who is able to do that does. This is not the case here. She can NOT be the qualifying child of the uncle, only a qualifying relative. If she can be the qualifying child of another person, then she can NOT be a qualifying relative.

As you've been told twice, FILE your return on paper. When the IRS asks, send them whatever info that backs up your claim. Again, I gave you lists of things that the IRS likes to see.

I am sorry Ron, but that is wrong. A qualifying child can be a son, daughter, grandchild, niece, nephew, or the descends thereof. So, had the child actually lived in the uncle's household for more than six months of the year, and been supported by the uncle, the child could have been the uncle's qualifying child.

In this instance however, the uncle didn't qualify to claim the child as either a qualifying child or a qualifying relative or anything else, because the child only resided in the uncle's home for a couple of weeks of 2019...and then only part time.

Mike, your child is your qualifying child. You meet all of the tests for a qualifying child. Therefore you win under the tiebreaker rules. However, you do have some challenges in proving that you meet all of the tests. On the other hand, the uncle flat out cannot prove anything that the uncle would have to prove, so you should win over the uncle.