EX took child deduction when it was our turn.

[mango]

We rotate every other year, and in our legal paper work it states father get's even years mother odd. Well for 2006, mother decided to claim the deduction and submitted her taxes before we did.

We e-filed and it bounced back, that XXX social was already claimed. So we had to mail it with a copy of the legal plan stating it was our right for the child deduction. A week later we got our full refund.

But now I wonder, what happens to the ex? Do they notify her? She obviously had submitted her papers early to get the deduction before we did. And I'm sure she already got her check and spent it. Do you suppose they will revoke it or make her pay it back? Anyone had this happen to them?

We just didn't want to stir the bee's nest if  you know what I mean.

[Sherry1]

she gets a refund, then they will take the money out of her refund.  DH's ex did this year after year.  We always got our refund and the IRS I guess got their money back one way or another.

[mistoffolees]

>We rotate every other year, and in our legal paper work it
>states father get's even years mother odd. Well for 2006,
>mother decided to claim the deduction and submitted her taxes
>before we did.
>
>We e-filed and it bounced back, that XXX social was already
>claimed. So we had to mail it with a copy of the legal plan
>stating it was our right for the child deduction. A week later
>we got our full refund.
>
>But now I wonder, what happens to the ex? Do they notify her?
>She obviously had submitted her papers early to get the
>deduction before we did. And I'm sure she already got her
>check and spent it. Do you suppose they will revoke it or make
>her pay it back? Anyone had this happen to them?
>
>We just didn't want to stir the bee's nest if  you know what I
>mean.

In principle, the IRS should catch it.

Two comments:

1. It doesn't really affect you directly, so do you really want to get involved? If ex is cheating, it's not hurting you, so is it worth risking making her angry (and possibly starting another custody/visitation/support war) over the issue?

2. OTOH, if you want to be a PIA, I believe the IRS has a deal where if you turn in someone cheating on their taxes, you get a percentage of the money they collect. You need to have detailed evidence (for example, her social security and the child's social, along with a copy of your divorce agreement).

Only you can say if it's worth stirring up a hornet's nest.

[mango]

Yea, that is what we pondered. Take our deductionor let it go....

But it was $1500 difference in our tax refund, so yes, it did affect us directly.

That is why we sent our legal papers to them after they rejected our deduction the first time.

[mango]

Sherry,

So you never really knew if they bothered to collect or not? My friend told me the same thing, in fact, she thinks they both got the deduction every year because the IRS did nothing about it.

[mistoffolees]

>Yea, that is what we pondered. Take our deductionor let it
>go....
>
>But it was $1500 difference in our tax refund, so yes, it did
>affect us directly.
>
>That is why we sent our legal papers to them after they
>rejected our deduction the first time.

That's not what I meant.

I would absolutely have done what you did - no questions asked. You were completely entitled to the deduction and you would have been foolish to not do what you did.

My point was that AFTER you had done that and gotten your deduction, her attempts to cheat the government didn't affect you. You were out a little time and a little copying expense and that was it.

I was answering the question I THOUGHT you were asking which was whether you should do MORE than that. Sorry if I misunderstood.

[Jade]

>We rotate every other year, and in our legal paper work it
>states father get's even years mother odd. Well for 2006,
>mother decided to claim the deduction and submitted her taxes
>before we did.
>
>We e-filed and it bounced back, that XXX social was already
>claimed. So we had to mail it with a copy of the legal plan
>stating it was our right for the child deduction. A week later
>we got our full refund.
>
>But now I wonder, what happens to the ex? Do they notify her?
>She obviously had submitted her papers early to get the
>deduction before we did. And I'm sure she already got her
>check and spent it. Do you suppose they will revoke it or make
>her pay it back? Anyone had this happen to them?
>
>We just didn't want to stir the bee's nest if  you know what I
>mean.

They will most definitely notify her and they will make her pay it back with interest and a penalty.  

[Sunshine1]

How do you know?  Do you know someone or did it happen to you?

[Kitty C.]

This happened a few years back, but we filed first (I do our taxes on line with TurboTax by the first week of Feb.), like usual.  For reasons we couldn't fathom, BM was adamant that DH wasn't current with CS at the end of the year, thus he could not take the deduction.  It took us until almost May to finally convince her DH WAS current (had to get a notarized letter from CSRU for her to believe it).

By that time, we knew she had filed and claimed SS, too.  But we didn't get notification of it until 2 days before Christmas.  Got the same letter, too...........SS's SSN had been used on two different returns.  But the letter also said that if we had filed correctly, we didn't have to respond.  So we didn't.  Then I called a local IRS office, actually talked to a 'human being' and asked what we should do in the coming year.  Quote her:  'He who files first, gets.'  Apparently the IRS will iron it all out later if there's any discrepancies.  She could not tell me what they would or could do to BM, but I am assuming either she had to pay it back or they deducted it from a future return.

I doubt there were any penalties, because I know we would have heard about it, either directly or indirectly from BM.  Funny thing is, she tried to claim DH was late, when CS was being garnished!  Apparently, CSRU calculated receipt when they received it from DH's employer and BM was trying to calculate it when it hit her bank account, LOL!  ..........And we've never had a problem with it since!

I doubt that you will be able to find out what any repercussions will be, unless the BM tells you herself.  But depending on what those repercussions are, you have more assurance that there's less likelihood she'll do it again.  I do strongly recommend that from now on, you file as soon as possible, though.  That way you won't have to worry about what she files and you won't have to wait for the IRS to iron things out if she tries it again.

[Jade]

>How do you know?  Do you know someone or did it happen to
>you?


Do you really think the IRS is going to not go after money that is owed?  Especially when they have the authority to automatically deduct what is owed from the paycheck?  
 

[mistoffolees]

>>How do you know?  Do you know someone or did it happen to
>>you?
>
>
>Do you really think the IRS is going to not go after money
>that is owed?  Especially when they have the authority to
>automatically deduct what is owed from the paycheck?  
>

I wouldn't assume that the IRS does what they're supposed to do. Estimates of tax underpayments run in the several hundred bilion dollar range. I've never been all that impressed with my dealings with the IRS.

Yes, they SHOULD collect it and there's a chance that they will, but no guarantees.

[Kitty C.]

IRS collected on a debt from me, but it took them 5 years to do it!  This was many years ago, tho.

Per my post below, we 'know' that the IRS knew BM had screwed up and claimed SS when she shouldn't have.  But as far as we know, there have been no repercussions, except that she may not have gotten the refund she was expecting, or they deducted it from her next year's refund.  I think a lot depends on the amount of the 'discrepancy' and what type it was before the IRS will start adding fines and penalties.  I certainly didn't have any when they collected from me.  

[mango]

I just looked on the internet, and found that the new 06 tax law states "whoever the child lives with for more than half of that year gets it." If split, one day more that half.

But for us we have a written 50/50 plan, but (just recently, October 06) SD has been refusing to come for all the Parenting times, = (BM finally PAS'd her fully). But for most of 2006 we did shared parenting up until October, even paid daycare for summer. So technically she could say she had her more then half...

BUT, our court papers stipulate rotating the deduction each year. Which is what we were abiding by.

I had no idea the law changed, and whether or not it affects "legal decrees" that actually have in writing who gets it which tax year, like ours does. I would think that she waives it by that signature agreeing to the rotation.

I guess she would have to prove she lived in her home one-day more then ours...?

I will stop worrying over it. For now, they DID give it to us, so they must be abiding by the legal paperwork.

[mistoffolees]

>I just looked on the internet, and found that the new 06 tax
>law states "whoever the child lives with for more than half of
>that year gets it." If split, one day more that half.
>
>But for us we have a written 50/50 plan, but (just recently,
>October 06) SD has been refusing to come for all the Parenting
>times, = (BM finally PAS'd her fully). But for most of 2006 we
>did shared parenting up until October, even paid daycare for
>summer. So technically she could say she had her more then
>half...
>
>BUT, our court papers stipulate rotating the deduction each
>year. Which is what we were abiding by.

You still can.

>
>I had no idea the law changed, and whether or not it affects
>"legal decrees" that actually have in writing who gets it
>which tax year, like ours does. I would think that she waives
>it by that signature agreeing to the rotation.

The new IRS ruling does not change any court ordered arrangements.

>
>I guess she would have to prove she lived in her home one-day
>more then ours...?

Yes.

However, there is a tie breaker rule, as well.

If both parents have an equal number of nights and if there is no court order overriding the IRS default, then the parent with the higher gross income gets the deduction.

[KAT]

As long as you have a court order don't worry about it, that's what the IRS will go by.  Another option would have been to file an order to show cause/contempt against her asking for $$ damages & for her to amend her return. Trust me, we went thru this for six years, the seventh year just wasn't worth it so we let it go. I'm counting on Karma to make up for it and it's been working too! :) If you head back to court in the future make sure the judge makes her sign the proper IRS form for ALL the years you will need to claim the deduction (saves making copies of court orders).

Let me share with you a little story on evil. A few years ago our return was kicked out again so we filed a paper return with the court order DH takes stepson. Apparently they send a letter to the other party stating that they have a few weeks to dispute the information that was sent in, if not they will owe $$ plus penalties & interest. I get a call from a totally hysterical crying woman. Apparently in Jan. of the tax year biohag had *sold* the tax deduction for stepson to her for $200.00. Whoops, bad move. When you play with Diablo your bound to get burned & it wasn't something I was going to fix. However I did turn the woman on to some information I had just recently gleaned...bio told her husband the 2,200  per month child support stopped six months previous. I told her to tell the biohag is she didn't pay up with the next support check paid out the 6th of that month that she would tell the hubby about the bold face lie. Yeah, she got paid & biohag was out a few hundred bucks too. Sadly that's probably the only retribution that woman has EVER paid (though hubby did find the check stub in the trash a few weeks later).

KAT

[Sunshine1]

Yes I know that the IRS will do whatever it has to, you sounded like you knew first hand that's why I asked the question geesh...can I have my head back now?

I have a similar situation in where our decree says if BF is behind in CS I get the deduction, well I submitted receipts in October for medical, it was never added to the arrears and the paperwork was stamped by the CS office in December...but my worker (after I called to ask wtf, why hasn't it been added, and this was now February AFTER I filed my taxes and got my return) sent me the paperwork back and told me that the new law for 2007 required me to fill out a different form and that BF had a right to dispute the expenses.

I said that's fine, why 2006 has anything to do with 2007 is beyond me but I jumped through her hoops and also let her know that these exact same expenses were submitted last year and if BF had a dispute of any of the expenses I was prepared for him to file the appropriate motion for anything he did not agree with...outlined in her new 2007 law.  I also sent her a copy of the Contempt motion I won for BF failing to provide insurance cards,  the whole reason for submitting the bills in the first place.

2 weeks later she added the same expenses to his CS that I submitted in 2006.  I claimed DS because I thought he was not current and in the meantime she wrote BF a letter stating he was current to send to the IRS when in fact he wasn't.???

So I was only asking what happens because he is hell bent and ecstatic that I may be in trouble with the IRS.  He claimed DS too and I haven't heard a word from the IRS about it.