Who can claim this child?

Question

My boyfriend and I are now caring for his ex girlfriend's child because she could not take care of him. She had him from January until the end of May. Then the ex sent him to his grandma's house for June and July and now he is with us. She says she's going to claim him because it was her mom she sent him to. She is a piece of work! She was an unfit mother and that's why we have him now. Who can claim the child and can we claim him for the months we have him? I know you have to have a child for 6 months, but what if the child is with 3 different people over the course of a year? We'd like to take her to court. Does anyone know how we would go about guardianship, taxes and child support?

Answer 1

If you do not have custody or court ordered guardianship, you can't claim that child.  

Answer 2

check with the IRS information on claiming a minor child and see what the requirements are for claiming a child who lives with you for less than the year and how you can claim them on your next tax return

Answer 3

If you live in the US...

She gets to claim him this year (a big part of that reason is because she has legal custody and you have not had him for at least half of the year).    And no, you can't claim him for a few months.  

Boyfriend needs to petition the court for custody and child support.  If he's not the *legal* father, then he has to petition to establish paternity.

Answer 4

Yea it is called get an attorney and go to court.  Keep a dairy of everything that happens good or bad.  It will hold up in court and keep times down too.  Ask the court for custody and show you can support this child.  Make the mom have supervised visitation.  At first I would only ask the court for every other week and only for a few hrs ( on the supervised visitation)  If she does ok then let her see the child longer.  You need to prove her unfit.  Does she work?  Can she support the child or does welfare have too?  Does she have a clean place for the child to live ? These questions are the same for you too.  But first step is get an attorney.  If you dont have the $$$ then get a second job and get it.

Answer 5

if you went to court and explained that basically they would probably give you and your boyfriend custody, and depending on her situation she would probably have to pay child support and only have limited visits

it all depends though , like where you live and so on

goto court and good luck