Secret Marriage and Tax Issues

[SeitenMaou]

My question is in the state of Alabama.



I want to get married with my girlfriend secretly, but will her parents still get in trouble if they still claims her as dependant? If yes, what can I do so she is able to be claimed by them as a dependant yet we are legally married since we wont be living together until this summer and she will be living with her Dad untill then.




and lastly, I know what Im doing. Please dont lecture me about how I am suppose to live my life.

[cbg]

How old is she?

[SeitenMaou]

How old is she?

she is 19 years old

[cbg]

And you want to defraud the government by having her parents falsely claim her as a dependent because....?

[SeitenMaou]

Its not a fraud because she is a dependant of her parents still. And we live in separate states currently.
Her Dad also pays for her tuition, insurance, and everything else, and she lives with him.

We want to get married now, but we dont want to freak her parents out untill the time is right.
So if he claims her as dependant again, will that be a legal issue if she is married?
Because we dont want to get him into trouble, but we also dont want him to know about it.

For the time being, we wish to keep it secret.

[cbg]

Yes, if you get married and her parents claim her as a dependent, that can cause tax and other legal issues.

You do realize that marriage records are public, right? That quite frequently they are published in the newspaper as a matter of course?

If you can't get married without telling her parents, don't get married.

[cyjeff]

Time for a visit from Unca Jeffy...

Not from a legal sense...

If you are not adult enough to tell her parents, you are not yet ready for marriage.

Yes, I understand that you want to do what you want even though it will "freak" out her parents. I also understand that you don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

After all, if you freak out her parents, they may stop paying for her education.

You two have an adult choice to make. Marry and live independently or continue to take her parents money and wait for graduation.

Don't start your life with a marriage based upon fraud and deception.

[LawResearcherMissy]

Its not a fraud because she is a dependant of her parents still.

It is if you get married and continue to file as single persons and allow her father to claim her as a dependent. Which is what you're proposing.

Grown-ups who want to get married do so, and they don't try to keep it a secret. "Secret marriage" is like "secret engagement" - it's for idiot teenagers who want to have the best of both worlds and not take responsibility for themselves and their actions.

If plan to marry, grow up first, or freaking her father out is going to be the absolute least of your concerns.