what can i do if i filed taxes wrong?

1. CONSULT A LAWYER. Way too many people living in Texas claim to be common law married when they are not.

2. If you are married, these are your stepsons and on the joint return, son/stepson really doesn't matter. If you are married and no longer live together, you have to get a divorce to get out of the marriage.

3. If you are NOT married (which is the case because you call her your GF and have not adopted her kid):

If the IRS is auditing you, FESS up immediately.

If the IRS has not gotten around to auditing you, you AMEND and pay back the money.

In both cases, you can expect to be banned from claiming EIC based on a qualifying child for 2 or 10 years.

4. Look at your prior returns. You state in other posts you have been living together for 3 years. Did you accidentally on purpose claim this child in other years?

As it was stated in another post if you filed MFJ and claimed EIC, you really messed up. If you filed HOH and claimed EIC you messed up (and if you did file HOH, did you list your supposed wife as a dependent?)

In tax terms, you have what is called a F*cking Mess.

If you truly had a Common Law Marriage, you would have been legally obligated to file a tax return as "Married-Filing Joint" or "Married-Filing Separately".

There are specific rules for common law marriages in Texas.

http://texaslawhelp.org/resource/informal-common-l...

You need professional help and be prepared to pay for it.

My guess is that the IRS is going to ignore your claim of a Common Law Marriage and force you to pay back a lot of money

You can not legally claim them unless you are married to their mother and file a joint return, so your whole tax form may be wrong. You can file an amendment to make the corrections.

If you need to make a correction to your tax filing, just contact the IRS. It's much easier to take care of issues now rather than wait for them to come up during an audit.

Do you need to return money? Maybe, but they'll determine that when you refile.

that's what a 1040 X is, it is an amendment

you can correct what was wrong with the first return

keep in mind, as of last Jan. in states where your relationship is considered married, ie. common law, you can file as married jointly and her children are claimed on your joint return

Common law married - apparently you aren't. That requires a lot more than just living together for a period of time. Just the fact that you refer to her as your gf and not your wife kills that. A true common law marriage does "count" with the IRS, but you'd have to prove it to the auditor. Otherwise you lose the audit, and probably have to return money.

If you filed as single and not head of household do nothing because it won't matter.

file and amended return