Tax question

[snapplegirl69]

Both parents reside in Massachusetts.Court cases are held in Berkshire County.

Father has EOW visitation with joint legal and child lives with bm.Father pays support on time.has all year.

bm worked for 6 months out of this year.Rest of the year she has been relying on cs and welfare to support her.

bm and father were never married.They do not have in the court order who claims child on taxes.bm has let her mother claim the child one year,but wont let the father.

Now child doesnt live with father,BUT he provided more then half of the childs support this year since bm only worked 6 months.She wont sign form 8832 to let him claim the child.

From what I saw on the website,it looks like father might be able to claim child since he provided more then half of the support this year.

1.If the ncp claims the child on the taxes and bm does,who will have to amend and redo them over?

2.Does courts usually agree to let parents claim child everyother year,or is that only sometimes?

Thank you

[socrateaser]

>1.If the ncp claims the child on the taxes and bm does,who
>will have to amend and redo them over?

The info on SPARC concerning this issue is outdated[/i], if it continues to assert that the person who pays for more than 1/2 of the support of the child gets the tax exemptions. The parent with whom the child resides more than 1/2 of the year is entitled to the federal tax exemption -- no exceptions. So forget about whatever you've read here.
>
>2.Does courts usually agree to let parents claim child
>everyother year,or is that only sometimes?

Sometimes. The balancing test is whether the child will benefit more from the obligor/payor parent's use of the exemption or from the obligee's use. If there is a substantial difference in overall tax obligation, ie.g., the obligor pays 40% of his income as federal/state taxes and the obligee pays 11%, or the obligor earns about 4xs what the obligee earns, then the exemption will be worth more to the child by giving it to the obligor parent, because, and this is the bad part, the court can order higher support, taken, because the obligor's net disposable income will be greater after the tax exemption.

In some cases the difference is so great that both parents will get a benefit from the tax exemption being awarded to the obligor parent.

But, only where there is a great disparity in earning. If the obligee is earning $10K a year and you're earning $30K, there isn't enough of a difference for the numbers to improve the child's circumstances, and you won't get the exemption, unless the other parent voluntarily signs it over. However, if the other parent earns so little that she would pay no taxes even without the exemption, then the court will award it to the obligor parent.