How Do I File If We Were A Registered Domestic Partnership But My Partner Left

About people claimed as dependents are children or other relatives. Nonetheless, you lot may also be able to claim an unrelated dependent, such as a domestic partner.

A couple smiles as they look at a laptop together.

Central Takeaways

• The IRS allows you to merits two types of dependents on your taxation return: qualifying children and qualifying relatives.

• Qualifying relatives don't demand to be related by blood or under a state-level marriage to exist claimed as a dependent on your taxation returns.

• You may claim a domestic partner equally a dependent if they meet the qualifying relative rules from the IRS.

• Claiming a dependent on your taxation render tin can provide admission to more than tax deductions and credits, resulting in potential tax savings.

What is a domestic partnership?

A domestic partnership is an alternative official human relationship status to marriage, and the IRS doesn't recognize it equally a union under state police. Therefore, if you are in a registered domestic partnership, yous aren't married for federal tax purposes and you lot may not file a federal return using a Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately filing condition.

Prior to the Supreme Court's 2015 determination that legalized aforementioned-sex marriage beyond the United States, almost registered domestic partners tended to be in same-sexual activity relationships.

What does the IRS consider a domestic partner?

A domestic partnership is an unmarried couple who alive together and have an involvement in receiving many of the same benefits a married couple receives, such as health insurance, Social Security, alimony, and tax benefits.

The IRS doesn't consider people of the same sex and opposite sex activity who are in registered domestic partnerships, civil unions or other similar formal relationships as married under state law. If y'all are a same-sex or opposite-sexual practice couple who's married nether state police force, you mostly must file equally either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.

However, as an exception to this rule, if yous meet the requirements to be considered single for revenue enhancement purposes, with a qualifying dependent, the Caput of Household filing status might be bachelor for married couples.

What is a dependent?

A dependent is someone who relies on another person for financial support, such equally housing, food, vesture, necessities, and more. Typically, this includes your children or other relatives, but y'all don't necessarily need to exist related to the person to claim them as a dependent on your tax return. In the correct circumstances, yous can merits a domestic partner equally a dependent.

Once you place someone as a dependent on your taxation return, you're announcing to the IRS that you lot are financially responsible for another person. For revenue enhancement years prior to 2018, taxpayers were immune to reduce their taxable income by a certain amount for each dependent claimed on a revenue enhancement return. This is known as an exemption deduction. First in 2018, the exemption deduction goes away until 2025.

For 2021, the dependent credit for other than qualifying children is $500. A credit is different from a deduction in that the credit directly reduces your tax while a deduction reduces the amount of income that is bailiwick to taxation.

What are the requirements for claiming a dependent?

The IRS rules for qualifying dependents embrace a significant number of situations, but the basic rules will cover almost everyone.

At that place are two types of dependents, each subject to dissimilar rules:

A qualifying child
A qualifying relative

For both types of dependents, y'all'll need to come across certain criteria.

Qualifying child

For a qualifying child, you need to pass the post-obit tests related to the following areas:

Support: To meet this test, the child can't have provided more than one-half of his or her own support for the year. This examination is different from the back up exam to be a qualifying relative.

Citizen or resident: You are only able to claim someone who is a U.S. citizen, U.Due south. national, U.Due south. resident or a resident of Canada or Mexico in about circumstances.

Income: Your qualifying dependent may earn income, only they must make a gross income of less than $4,300 in 2020, or 2021 to be claimed by you lot every bit a dependent.

Single person: The person yous want to claim as a dependent tin't be married to another person and claimed on that return either as a filer or a dependent.

Age: The qualifying kid must be under age xix or, if a full-time student, nether age 24. If your child is permanently and totally disabled, at that place's no historic period limit for claiming them as a dependent nether the qualifying kid rules.

Residency: The qualifying child needs to have lived with you for more than half the twelvemonth, though several exceptions apply to this rule.

Human relationship: The child can be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, half blood brother, one-half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, adopted kid, or an offspring of any of them.

Qualifying relative

To meet the definition used by the IRS for a qualifying relative, this person doesn't necessarily hateful a blood relative or someone who's related to you lot by police, such as a stepson or stepdaughter. Domestic partners can be qualifying relatives under IRS rules if they encounter the following criteria:

Residency: To claim a qualifying relative every bit a dependent on your tax return, they must live at your residence all year or appear on the list of "relatives who do not alive with y'all" in IRS Publication 501, which includes around thirty different types of relatives on the list.

Income: To claim your domestic partner on your tax return as a dependent nether the qualifying relative rules, your partner's gross income for the twelvemonth—significant income from all sources—tin't exceed $4,300 for 2021.

Support: You lot must provide more than one-half of your partner's fiscal support during the year.

Citizen or resident: Your partner must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, or a U.S. resident alien. A resident of Canada or Mexico might besides authorize.

Not claimed by another: No one else, such as your partner'due south parents, tin merits your domestic partner equally a dependent child on their taxation return.

Unmarried: Your partner can't exist married to someone else and file a joint return with that other person except to claim a refund of withheld income revenue enhancement or estimated income tax paid.

TurboTax Tip: The IRS doesn't require a dependent to laissez passer the age test for a qualifying relative, meaning the qualifying relative can exist any historic period. As a result, IRS guidelines allow you to claim a domestic partner as a dependent under certain situations.

Can my domestic partner claim me equally a dependent?

Yes, your domestic partner tin can merits you as a dependent on their tax return nether qualifying relative rules for determining dependency status. Dependents don't necessarily demand to exist related to exist claimed on taxation returns.

What challenges do you face up claiming a domestic partner as a dependent?

Income limit poses claiming

Information technology can be difficult for a non-relative to run across all of the conditions necessary to be claimed every bit a dependent, especially for a domestic partner who may also work and earn an income.

The income limit is an especially tough hurdle. Even a role-fourth dimension or seasonal chore will put their income over the 2021 $4,300 limit. Working just ten hours a week at $9 an hour, for example, would bring in more money than is allowed.

Domestic partners can't earn a high income or they won't exist eligible to exist claimed as a dependent on their domestic partner'due south tax render.

Living together

Remember that your partner must live with yous for the entire year to authorize equally a dependent. If you moved in together in the centre of the twelvemonth, you'll have to expect until the adjacent year before claiming your partner equally a dependent.

On another matter related to living arrangements, certain "temporary absences" don't touch on whether you and your partner would exist considered living together. If one of you lot took a vacation, for example, or was deployed with the armed forces, you'd however be considered living together. The IRS says the following types of absences won't count against you:

Illness, such as time spent in a infirmary or rehabilitation facility
Vacations
Business travel or assignments
Education-related absences
Absences for armed forces service

Do you lot accept to be related to claim someone as a dependent?

You don't demand to be related to someone to claim them as a dependent on your tax render. Under the qualifying relative rules used to determine eligibility for being claimed as a dependent, the person only needs to satisfy tests related to marriage condition, support, residency, income, housing status, and whether you're claimed by another on a split up render.

The IRS doesn't require you to be related to exist claimed as a dependent, allowing domestic partners to exist claimed as a dependent on their partner's tax returns.

How does a dependent touch your taxes?

Claiming a dependent on your return tin accept a significant bear upon on your revenue enhancement situation, peculiarly if the dependent opens up your ability to claim additional tax deductions and credits.

However, not all dependents are created equally. If you lot have a qualifying child, 1 of the most substantial benefits comes from the enhanced Kid Revenue enhancement Credit.

Because domestic partners don't count equally qualifying children, this tax credit isn't bachelor to a domestic partner who doesn't too claim a qualifying child on his or her tax return.

While you lot might not be able to claim the Child Tax Credit for your domestic partner, you may notwithstanding qualify to claim the Other Dependent Credit worth upward to $500 for qualifying relative dependents. This credit begins to phase out if your adjusted gross income is greater than $200,000 for unmarried filers.

TurboTax Tip: Including a qualified dependent on your revenue enhancement return offers a host of taxation benefits you tin can only claim with a dependent. The large number of tax deductions and credits available to people claiming qualified dependents tin result in a lower tax bill.

Is there a family tax do good to challenge dependents?

When you claim a dependent as a single filer, you by and large can file taxes under the Head of Household filing status. This entitles you lot to a larger standard deduction and wider income tax brackets amidst a number of other deductions and credits you wouldn't be able to claim every bit a single filer.

Claiming a domestic partner as a dependent, however, doesn't allow yous to change your filing status to Head of Household. The IRS doesn't allow you to claim a domestic partner as your but dependent and file equally a Head of Household. The only way to merits a domestic partner as a dependent and also file nether the Head of Household filing condition is also to have another qualifying dependent on your return.

What if your partner is married to someone else?

If your partner is still married to their previous partner, they must still file a married, filing separately return. They tin't be claimed as a dependent on your return if they're still legally married to someone else because their divorce isn't yet final.

Specifically, when your partner remains married to someone else, they tin can't be treated as a dependent because ane of the dependency tests requires the person not to file a return with a spouse.

Are domestic partners considered spouses?

Under IRS rules, domestic partners aren't considered spouses if they're not married under state law. The IRS refers to these individuals equally registered domestic partners.

After the ruling from United States 5. Windsor, the courtroom case which allowed same-sex marriage in 2015, any same-sex couples who are married nether state law are married for federal revenue enhancement purposes.

Can an single couple both claim head of household?

If the only dependent you claim is your domestic partner, neither of yous tin can file every bit Head of Household. Your registered domestic partner isn't ane of the specified related individuals that qualifies y'all to file as Head of Household.

If you merits your domestic partner as a dependent and you also accept some other qualifying person as a dependent, you may file as Head of Household.

Advantages of having a dependent

Despite shelling out thousands of dollars for food, housing, clothing and more on your dependents, y'all might finally get a financial pause come tax time by claiming them as qualifying dependents on your taxation return and seeing some significant tax savings.

The IRS provides dependent child, relative and non-relative tax deductions and credits that you can employ to reduce your tax bill. While the Kid Tax Credit is typically the most generous, non-relative dependents like domestic partners can however enjoy the Other Dependent Tax Credit, amounting to equally much as $500 in value.

Remember, with TurboTax, nosotros'll ask you lot elementary questions almost your life and assist you fill out all the right revenue enhancement forms. With TurboTax you can exist confident your taxes are done right, from uncomplicated to complex tax returns, no matter what your situation.