One Week
MONEY MEETS TAX · EPISODE 15
Irvine · December 2025
Money & Tax in this episode
A Christmas baby · Becoming a family of three · A dependent for the tax year
The hospital bag had been by the front door for nine days.
Daisy had packed it.
Evan had repacked it.
Then Daisy had removed three things Evan added and put back one thing he had taken out.
By Christmas Eve, neither of them was touching it anymore.
Daisy looked at him.
“You have your wallet?”
“Yes.”
“Phone?”
“Yes.”
“Charger?”
“Yes.”
“Car seat?”
Evan stopped.
She smiled.
“I’m kidding.”
He stared at her for a second.
“That’s not funny anymore.”
“It was a little funny.”
The car seat had been installed two weeks earlier.
Evan had watched three videos, read the manual twice, and then driven to a local inspection event because the phrase should not move more than one inch felt too open to interpretation.
Daisy had gone with him.
She had not commented.
Much.
Their Irvine house looked different now.
Not dramatically.
There was a bassinet beside their bed. A stack of diapers against one wall. Tiny clothes washed and folded into drawers that had once held extra towels.
The smallest bedroom had a crib against the wall Daisy had chosen in September.
The third bedroom still held a few of her material samples in one corner.
They had agreed not to turn every spare room into baby space.
At least not yet.
On Christmas morning, at 3:14 a.m., Daisy woke Evan.
“I think it’s time.”
He sat up immediately.
“Okay.”
Then he stayed sitting there.
Daisy watched him.
“Evan.”
“Right.”
He got out of bed.
The hospital bag was still by the door.
So was the car seat.
Jiwoo Park arrived that afternoon.
December 25.
She weighed a little over seven pounds and was considerably louder than Evan had expected from someone that small.
Daisy was exhausted.
Jiwoo slept against her chest.
Evan sat beside the bed, looking at both of them.
For once, there was nothing useful to calculate.
A nurse came in, checked a few things, and asked if they had decided on the baby’s full name.
They had.
She wrote it down.
JIWOO PARK.
Seeing it printed made Evan smile.
Daisy noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s your face when something becomes official.”
“I don’t have a face for that.”
“You absolutely do.”
He looked back at the form.
There were more forms.
There were always more forms.
Birth certificate information.
Social Security number request.
Insurance paperwork.
Pediatrician information.
Evan worked through them slowly.
Daisy watched him from the bed.
“You seem very comfortable right now.”
“With the paperwork?”
“Yes.”
“I understand paperwork.”
She looked down at Jiwoo.
“Good. I’ll handle this part.”
“That seems fair.”
The next evening, they were home.
The bassinet was no longer decorative.
Neither was the changing pad.
Their dining table had disappeared under bottles, instruction sheets, unopened mail, and three different kinds of wipes.
At 2:08 the next morning, Evan stood in the kitchen warming a bottle while Jiwoo cried down the hall.
His phone was on the counter.
He opened it to check the time.
Instead, he saw December 27.
For reasons he could not fully explain, a thought appeared.
He typed:
baby born december 25 dependent 2025
Daisy walked in carrying Jiwoo.
She looked at the screen.
“Seriously?”
“It was already open.”
“It was not already open.”
Evan took Jiwoo while Daisy reached for the bottle.
“So technically,” he said, “I think she counts as our dependent for 2025.”
Daisy handed him the bottle.
“She’s been here for two days.”
“I know.”
“And that’s enough?”
“I think so.”
Daisy looked at Jiwoo.
“That’s efficient.”
Evan smiled.
“I’ll confirm it.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Not at two in the morning.”
He put the phone facedown.
“Fine.”
Jiwoo stopped crying.
For about six seconds.
Then started again.
Daisy leaned against the counter.
“We were really good at sleeping.”
“We had a good run.”
“That we did.”
Later that afternoon, Evan looked it up again.
December 25 was not too late.
There were other requirements, and the Social Security number would matter when they filed, but there was nothing they needed to solve that afternoon.
He closed the browser.
Daisy was sitting on the bed with Jiwoo asleep beside her.
“Did you find your answer?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“You don’t want to know?”
“I want to know after a nap.”
“Fair.”
He sat beside her.
Daisy rested her head against his shoulder.
“We should probably sleep.”
“Yes.”
Neither of them moved.
A few minutes later, Jiwoo made a small noise.
Both of them looked down at the same time.
The Tax Behind the Story
A child born during the year can still satisfy the qualifying-child residency test even if the child was born near the end of December. Generally, if the parents’ home was the child’s home for more than half the time the child was alive during the year, the residency test can be met. A required hospital stay following birth does not prevent that treatment.
That means Jiwoo’s December 25 birth can affect Evan and Daisy’s 2025 tax return. But being claimable as a dependent and qualifying for a particular tax credit are related, not identical, questions.
For the Child Tax Credit, additional requirements apply. For 2025, those include identification requirements for the qualifying child, including a valid Social Security number issued within the applicable filing deadline, along with the other credit eligibility rules.
Want the tax rules behind the story?
Having a Child: What Changes on Your Tax Return?
A new child can affect dependents, the Child Tax Credit, childcare-related tax rules, and other parts of a family’s return. Some of those rules begin in the year the child is born—even when the birth happens near the end of December.