claiming dependents on taxes SO NOT FAIR
So my husband and I as well as his ex-wife, are considered low-income households. My dh makes very close to the same amount of money his ex makes. (I believe she makes one dollar more an hour then him.) He is the non-custodial parent. He has custody of his two kids 32% of the year going by the divorce decree. He pays child support yet, he is not allowed to claim his children on his income taxes! SO NOT FAIR.
We did some research and found that if she signed a tax form releasing her exemption for one or both of the kids he could claim one or both and attach signed document to his tax return. (Form 8332). So he asked her and she said "he doesn't deserve" to have that right. I don't understand why it works this way. I mean, when the children are in his custody (our home) he has to provide($$$) for them 100% with no help, and when the children are in the ex's household he provides ($$$) for them with a big chunk of his paycheck. It doesn't seem right that one parent provides so much, but isn't legally allowed to claim a dependent without the other parent's permission.
My question is would my hubby even stand a chance if we asked the courts to amend the decree to include who gets to claim the children at tax time? We think it would be fair to each claim one every year. Other option would be to rotate claiming both of them, but seems more beneficial to always be claiming at least one. Why is the custodial parent the one, that by default, gets the benefit?
I imagine you could go back
I imagine you could go back to court to get that changed. It seems to me that it's fairly standard to be able to claim the child/children every other year. I'm surprised this wasn't in the original decree; my DH didn't use an attorney for his divorce (and thus did get screwed a bit) but did manage to have this included. My DH is NCP, makes a decent amount of more money than BM, but he gets to claim SD every even year. Unfortunately the 8332 form is not entirely enough for the IRS; we've always had to use both the form, and send a copy of the decree showing that DH is allowed to claim SD as well.
Even though it's in the decree, and BM signed the form waiving all future even years, it wasn't enough for BM to not claim SD on our year anyway. It appears BM claimed SD last year even though it was not her year, and we received a letter from the IRS. It said we didn't need to do anything if we are in the right, so I hope it comes to nothing. Ugh...
CP CAN sign the form to
CP CAN sign the form to release future payments to the NCP but the CP can ALSO decide to go back on it and cancel the future payment form..
Also I think the IRS states
Also I think the IRS states online that ALL decrees ordered after a certian date which is I think like 1996 will not be accepted and the parent that actually had the child more than 50% of the year will automatically get the credit for the child. Before my husband got custody he tried on a few times to get credit for his child and BM fought it everytime and IRS audited both of them and BM ended up getting the refund for SD because she had SD 60% of the year. Its bs and its not really that fair. I say if the NCP is up to date on support and has reasonable visits with the child it should only be right that they get to file for the child every other year. Now if the NCP ISN'T up to date on support and never has visits or chooses to cancel visits all of the time I dont think they should get shit from the government when it comes to tax refunds....
Well yes I was wrong on the
Well yes I was wrong on the date. 2003 is not right either but you were way closer on the date then I was haha. I thought I was way off on the date haha
Post-2008 decree or agreement. If the
divorce decree or separation agreement went
into effect after 2008, the noncustodial parent
cannot attach certain pages from the decree
or agreement instead of Form 8332
He asked his ex to do that
He asked his ex to do that and she is not willing... she said he doesn't deserve to claim them.
That sucks... Maybe she just
That sucks... Maybe she just forgot it wasn't her year... doubtful though. Yeah it isn't in their divorce and so since it isn't, by default, the custodial parent gets to claim the kids.
I just want to make sure what
I just want to make sure what we want (the right to claim one child a year or rotate years claiming both) isn't unheard of, or ridiculous. It doesn't seem outlandish to me, and we certainly aren't wanting to do it to "piss her off." We just think it is fair.
The problem is, the biggest
The problem is, the biggest benefit with claiming a child comes from earned income credit, child tax credit, and head of household. You can only claim these things if you have the child 50% of the time, according to the IRS. Claiming just an exemption is not that great a benefit. In our state, child support guidelines factor in the tax benefits that the custodial parent gets. Part of the tax benefit can be considered as child support, which is deducted from the ncp. Check your state guidelines.
That would be nice if they
That would be nice if they factored in the tax benefits here... and for my family, claiming the exemption helps us out a lot, even without getting the eic or ctc.
It's all relative. When you
It's all relative. When you compare getting to deduct $1000 from your income, vs the cp getting a $5,000 tax check...getting the deduction is nothing.
I don't understand. You are
I don't understand. You are saying it will NOT give us any more money on our tax return?
And from my understanding,
And from my understanding, its a $3700 deduction per dependent.
And actually I just checked
And actually I just checked on turbo tax... if the custodial parent forfeits an exemption of a child to the non-custodial parent, the child tax credit goes with it. So the ncp can get that credit too.
Sorry, the exemption IS $3750
Sorry, the exemption IS $3750 and the child tax credit is $1000. Here is what I meant. If the kids live with you, it can be a difference of a couple of thousand dollars (or more, with more children). Even with the form, you only get certain tax benefits (those mentioned here). The form can't turn you into the residential parent, and while getting to claim the kids helps, it's NOTHING compared to what the custodial parent gets when combined with HOH and EIC. And to the original post, it ISN'T fair. My bf pays for 75% of the care of his children and while he ALSO pays about $6,000 in taxes, his exw gets about a $5000 tax check, PLUS his money tax free.
We don't have this
We don't have this either...the witch has gotten to claim the idiot every single year...except of course, that one year she allowed my DH to claim her because he didn't work 8months out of the year, BUT paid CS in full (thanks to me) and then expected him to give HER the money he received back...AND later we found out that she had actually put her social security number as an INVALID number so we ended up with a mess with the IRS thanks to the witch...sigh
My husband has two
My husband has two daughters..
In the CO it states he claims one of the children and she claims the other for the
taxes..
We still have to get her to sign the form even though it is a court order.
That form has to be put with the tax papers..
We had the same issue not too
We had the same issue not too long ago. In my husband's order though they, BM and SO, both say it's 50/50 custody- is actually 60/40- with her as the primary custodial parent because she gets more overnights. When I did the math, from the notes I had from mid-Feb on: it was within 7 nights to being equal.
If it was equal , the IRS says the parent with the higher gross incmoe would claim the child.
You would have to go back to court and have it written in if she's being unreasonable. Considering there is two children, I don't know why he couldn't claim one. Though, be wary- just because its stipulated in the custody agreement, doesn't mean she won't still claim them or purposely not fill out the form allowing him to claim.
I had to just breathe and take myself out of it- recognizing there was nothing I could do to help him but give him the same information I posted here. For this year, he relented and is letting her claim SS because shes "planning on using that money to move out" of her exfiance's grandmothers, but they tentively agreed to him claiming SS next year. We'll see what really happens on THAT one.
My attorney spelled out the
My attorney spelled out the tax deductions up front in the divorce decree. The issue of children and tax deductions is totally the attorney's fault. This should always be decided in the decree to alleviate these problems. We had 3 children... we split the oldest, every other year, he claimed the middle child and I always got to claim the youngest.
He may have been upset because I got the deduction longer than him, but then again we did not split custody. He chose not to be involved.. I had 100% of time with the kids... so I guess I could have been upset and not signed the IRS form for the middle child, but he always paid support so I figured 1 out of 2 isn't bad and always signed the IRS form for him.
You should get a lawyer
You should get a lawyer first, then apply for custodial deductions over your returns in the court and file your tax e-file as par I think filling your taxes with turbotax will be a more good option and comes with many coupons www.a2zdeals.com/coupons/Turbo-Tax/ as it would give a fast pace to your case and the procedure would involve her to come in front and appear in the court and then it would be great for you.
It is not likely that your DH
It is not likely that your DH could get a court ruling giving him the tax deduction for his kids. The CP gets the deduction if it is not otherwise ordered.
My SS's SpermIdiot tried to take the exemption once. He filed before we did and claimed the Skid. We filed and our return was rejected. We had to send a copy of our CO to the IRS who then went after the SpermIdiot.
As reasonable as your scenerio is it is very unlikely that you will get a family law judge who will shift the deductions for the Skids to your DH since BM is the custodial parent with the kids 60+% of the time.
You can ask for it to change,
You can ask for it to change, but it is not likely. Also, if you're taxes are audited, you will get dinged for this because I think you need to have physical custody of the child for 40% or more of the time. Would it make that big of a difference on your return to claim one child? It would be a pretty big fight.
All the best,
A. S. Noraford
Author, Stepfamily Diaries
www.blendedfamilysurvivalguide.com