I am teaching a Basic Income Tax Course and today we were learning about qualified child and qualifying relative. A question was asked pertaining to common law marriages where "spouse" brings a child into the relationship from a prior relationship and the new couple are now in a commonn law marriage (according to the their state's laws.) Is now this child a "step child" and therefore a qualifying child to the taxpayer? As I am typing this I think I just answered my own question. The taxpayers would be filing a joint return and therefore the child would be a qualifying child???????

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>>The taxpayers would be filing a joint return and therefore the child would be a qualifying child?<<

The parent's filing status is irrelevant, whether it is S, MFS, MFJ, HH, or QW. The child of a spouse or former spouse meets the relationship test, so she is a qualifying child if the other tests are met.

Generally this applies to any legal marriage, including common law marriages under the laws of any state. However, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages, so individual states may not conform to the qualifying child rules on that point.

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Thanks Jainen.. appreciate your comments

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