I love the IRS.....

highly illegal.

seriously?? thats how we filed last year too

i got my email stating that the IRS approved and accepted both our returns…

its on H&R Block now…

From the IRS website http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#d0e2117 :

You may be able to file as head of household if you meet all the following requirements.

  1. You are unmarried or “considered unmarried” on the last day of the year.

  2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.

  3. A “qualifying person” lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as school). However, if the “qualifying person” is your dependent parent, he or she does not have to live with you. See Special rule for parent, later, under Qualifying Person

Table 4. Who is a qualifying person?

If the person is . . . . .your qualifying child (such as a son, daughter, or grandchild who lived with you more than half the year and meets certain other tests). . . AND . . . he or she is single . . . . THEN that person is . . .
a qualifying person, whether or not you can claim an exemption for the person.

Looks like you’re actually ok, at least with respect to you claiming head of household without claiming an exemption for your kids.

cool…thanks for the information!

Id say you highly have no idea what you’re talking about.

This was one of the things I read, but I also read on the IRS web-page, about unmarried and if the other parent IS claiming the child as a dependent then that child can not be claimed as your qualifier for head of household.

I just don’t want to see this dude have to pay back several $K in the future, because some on-line return program had a problem that no one found.

Before being married, I was in a similar situation, my girl would file head of household along with the earned income credit, and we would get the most back that way. Thats all changed now that we are married.

Had a little more time to read further on the earned income credit and “qualifying child” and found this:

"If you and another person have the same qualifying child, you and the other person(s) can decide which of you will treat the child as a qualifying child. That person can take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit) based on the qualifying child.

The exemption for the child.

The child tax credit.

Head of household filing status.

The credit for child and dependent care expenses.

The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.

The earned income credit.

The other person cannot take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person cannot agree to divide these tax benefits between you."

98V8Tbird - From this section looks like the approach you took could present problems. However, it appears that if you and your fiance both took an exemption for 1 child, you could claim head of household and she could claim the EIC.

Just a heads up. Although, I would think the software you used would have a check that would throw up a red flag as soon as you tried to claim head of household with claiming a dependent or identifying some other qualifying individual.

im going to call H&R Block to check it out. Thanks for the heads up.

This seems true, what what I thought I knew. But then the number for the EIC would drop since it would be a family of 2 and not three…

And don’t trust the software, many people have been burned by the tax software. And even if the IRS accepts the return, that really doesn’t mean everything is ok. It just means six years from now, when they get all of '06’s taxes completed you will get the audit call…

Let’s know what the block tells you…

OK, spoke with H&R Block, they stated that I actually claimed my son. I guess from when I filed last year, all the information carried over. I claimed him last year, because she ran her own business, and was able to file the EIC, and I claimed him and head of household. I stated that I filed for my fiance as well, and I put him under her along with my daughter, and they told me that they emailed her and informed her that the IRS rejected hers and she apparently went in and fixed it, and didn’t bother to tell me. So i called her and asked her and she said that she did. So actually, we are getting back $7735 back instead now. Oh well, I will take the cut if it means that I wont get audited 4 years from now.

Does anyone know how to turn a pdf document into a JPG???

Im sitting here at work doing my taxes. Is it wrong of me to think I should start popping out a few kids so I can get a $7k+ return back? lol, Im kidding but 1/2 of my return is gone because I owe for 05 and 06 local taxes. But at least it will be paid and off my shoulders.

Glad you got that straighted out. Not sure about the converting pdf to jpg.

Nice of your fiance to keep you in the loop.

Here’s one way that usually works. Open your .pdf file, then under the “advanced” pull down menu at the top choose “export all images” and you should be able to save the document out as a .jpg file (or multiple .jpg files if your .pdf document is multiple pages).

i just tried doing that, and it saved all the H&R Block logos, but nothing else.