<prompt> Human: So long story short my mother-in-law has been living with us since the middle of this year and does not work. She asked my wife if we wanted to claim her kids as dependants on our next Tax Return and we can split the money seeing as we let them stay in our house. The problem is I know for a fact that she has sold her two daughters Social Security numbers in the past during tax season. Would it be wise to claim them even though we have plenty of records stating that they have been living with us?  <response>: You can claim the 2 kids AND the mother in law. I dont wanna go in detail unless you really want me to but you can. I need to know a little more about the whole selling the social security numbers thing. As long as no one else files a return claiming the kids youll be fine. If someone does file a return claiming them and you try to electronically file your return, it wont go through. Youll have to send it by paper in that case.Source: Im a tax accountant.Edit: Oh, wow, I completely missed the and we can split the money part. Um, definitely dont split the money. She has no right to that as far as Im concerned. Ive had enough cases with shitty family members trying to take advantage of me in situations like this that I think you definitely shouldnt do this if youre forced to split the money with her. Better to not fall into that kind of a trap with toxic family members like this. 