Can I Claim My Boyfriend as a Dependent?

You may be able to claim your boyfriend as a qualifying relative, but only if he meets certain requirements.

The answer to the question of whether or not you can claim your boyfriend as a dependent is maybe, but probably not.

The first thing to get straight is that there are actually two different types of dependents: qualifying children and qualifying relatives.

You definitely cannot claim your boyfriend as a qualifying child, for several reasons, the most prominent of them being the fact that you are not his parent.

That leaves claiming your boyfriend as a qualifying relative as the only option. But before you joyfully check off that you have a dependent, you need to make sure he meets all of the IRS requirements. If you claim someone who doesn’t meet the requirements, you could be in hot water with the IRS if they ever decide to audit your return.

What are the requirements?

Here are the requirements your boyfriend has to meet in order for you to claim him as a qualifying relative:

• He must have lived with you all year as a member of your household.
• He must be a U.S. citizen or resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico.
• He must be unmarried, or married but not filing a joint return.
• He must not be the qualifying child of you or anyone else.
• He must have a gross income of less than $4,000
• You must have provided more than half of his total support for the year.

Remember, in order to claim him, he must meet all of the requirements listed above. You must be able to prove that he meets them, should the IRS question you.

If it turns out that he does meet the requirements and you can claim him, remember that you are only claiming him as a qualifying relative, not as a qualifying child.

Of the two categories, qualifying child is the more valuable of the two, as there are many tax breaks that are only available for people with qualifying children. So yes, you can claim your girlfriend or boyfriend as a dependent if they meet all terms.

So if a section of your return or the tax codes, asks for a ‘dependent,’ you can go ahead and use your qualifying relative. But if it asks specifically for a ‘qualifying child’ then that’s a no-go for you. You can’t use a qualifying relative to claim tax benefits that require a qualifying child.

The PriorTax application will help you make sure you get every single tax benefit that your dependent (regardless of it being your boyfriend as a dependent) entitles you to. Our tax experts will answer any questions you have. Get started now.

Photo via Nicki Varkevisser on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Tax and Life Changes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.