so I’m confused on what to do basically we lived in my parents house and my husband was in another state for almost the whole year so I’m sure that means my husband can’t claim any of his children? although he wants to because he’s the one that sent money to spend on them but he didn’t live with them so I’m not sure. but I know he can add me since we are married and filing jointly but we didn’t live together so I’m really confused
and my parents are saying they already claimed one of the grandchildren so we can add the other to ours since we were living at their home so I don’t know what do I do now
Grandparent claimed children but husband also wants to claim
byu/Standard-Future-8176 intax
Posted by Standard-Future-8176
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If you file jointly with your husband, and the kids lived with either you or your husband for more than half the year, then you and your husband get “first dibs” to claim the kids.
If your parents have higher income than you & your husband do, or if you file separately from your husband and your parents have higher income than you do, then you can choose to let them claim one or more kids instead of claiming them yourself. But it’s your choice to make, not theirs.
If your husband files separately from you, and the kids didn’t live with him for more than half the year, he doesn’t get to claim them. It doesn’t matter who paid for what.
If you and your husband want to claim the kids, and your parents already claimed one of them, you can tell your parents that they should file an amended return. In order for you & your husband to file and claim a child that your parents already claimed, whichever of you is listed first on the return needs to get a one-time Identity Protection PIN from the IRS website in order to file electronically (sounds weird, but it’s what the IRS wants you to do), or file on paper via the mail.
If you claim a kid that your parents already claimed, then the IRS will first sent a letter to you & your husband & your parents, saying “hey, there’s a contested dependent here; if one of you should amend to remove that claim, please do so”. If none of you amend, then the IRS may send something like [this](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f886hdep.pdf) asking for proof to justify the claim.
Ultimately, they should say that you & your husband get the claim. They’d pay the refund to you & your husband, and they’d demand your parents pay back the excess refund they received, plus penalties. They also may require your parents to jump through additional hoops before claiming dependents in the future, or even prohibit them from claiming dependents entirely for a few years.
How to proceed depends on what you and your husband want to do and how much you want to rock the boat with your parents. Again, if you don’t file jointly, it sounds like your husband isn’t entitled to claim the kids; it’s *only* if you file jointly (because they lived with you, *not* him) that it becomes an option for him to claim them.