Who gets the tax deduction, and what happens when the terms are violated?

[chardog]

I have a custom judgement:

I am the petitioner, and here it goes:

18. That petitioner shall exercise the federal and state dependency tax deductions with reference to said children as long as petitioner is providing more than fifty percent, of support of said children. Should Respondent begin earning a provable wage, and begin providing fifty percent, or more of the support of said children, the federal and state dependency tax deductions shall be split between the parents; one parent taking the state deduction one year while the other parent takes the federal deduction the same year, and reversing the following year.

-----------------------------------------

I pay my son's FULL child care expenses, and he also lives with me for more than 70% of the time.

The problem is that BM went ahead and filed her taxes a few weeks ago, taking the deduction. What should, could I do?

[leon]

who is listed as the Custodial parent, thats all the IRS cares about, anything else is up to the courts.

[chardog]

>who is listed as the Custodial parent, thats all the IRS
>cares about, anything else is up to the courts.
I believe birth mother is custodial parent;  that being said, I have an adjusted court order, rewarding me with the tax deductions specifically.  I used this parenting plan:

http://deltabravo.net/custody/pplan3.php

It has been modded a little bit, but remains mostly the same, and more importantly, it has been signed off by the judge.

[notnew]

Chardog,

There is an IRS form specifically for this purpose where parent gives consent that the other parent can take the deduction in that given year. Both have to sign. I cannot remember the form number. If you search on the IRS site,  you should be able to find it.

I would file taxes and claim child as you are legally entitled to. Enclose a copy of your court order with the pertinent section hi-lited. Also advise that you did not sign a waiver allowing the other parent to begin taking the deduction. A call into your local IRS office with ex's ss # and reporting the information may be helpful as well to get an investigation started.

If you don't get the refund, take it to court on a contempt motion. When you prevail, you can file amended returns. Make sure you ask for the ex to be responsible for all costs associated with this too.

Good luck!

[Jade]

>>who is listed as the Custodial parent, thats all the IRS
>>cares about, anything else is up to the courts.
>I believe birth mother is custodial parent;  that being said,
>I have an adjusted court order, rewarding me with the tax
>deductions specifically.  I used this parenting plan:
>
>http://deltabravo.net/custody/pplan3.php
>
>It has been modded a little bit, but remains mostly the same,
>and more importantly, it has been signed off by the judge.


If you have a court order, you get the exemption.  File your taxes, claim the exemption and attach a copy of the court order.  

[chardog]

I really wish it was that easy.  I spoke with IRS, and they wont honor the court order because it is conditional.  I need to prove that my son stays with me more and that I am the custodial(physically) parent.  I'll update the situation when it is resolved.  Thanks for input.

[mistoffolees]

That doesn't change things. The court order is still the determing factor - if you can prove that you've met the terms. If you can't, it falls back to IRS guidelines (typically who provides >50% of the support). You'd still have to prove that you met the IRS guidelines if you can't prove that you met the court order.

[gemini3]

Please clarify a couple of things for me.  The first is that the stipulation you have is really confusing.  So, if I'm reading it correctly, she claims them on Federal and you claim them on state in "year A", and then you switch in "Year B"?  Can you even do that??  Don't your returns have to match for state and federal?  It seems like it would be a lot less confusing if she claimed them in odd years (on both), and you claimed them in even years, or something to that nature.

As far as the IRS goes - the form # is 8332.  If you feel that she's filed incorrectly, you can go ahead and file yours with the deductions as well.  They'll probably reject it because someone's already filed for your kids SSN, and then you'll have to provide back up documentation.  This would be the court order stating who files when, and your Form 8332 if you can get it.  

If she IS actually violating the order by filing - and make sure you're clear on it - you can file a show cause because she's in contempt.

[notnew]

This is what I said many posts ago.

You are correct, they should be filing federal and state claiming the kids for the same year and just switch off if they want to. THAT is why IRS Form #: 8332 exists.

He needs to go ahead and file with the deduction as he is allowed to. BECAUSE he doesn't have any proof of her contempt until the IRS rejects his returns based on the kids already being claimed on another return. When he gets that documentation, that is his proof and he can file a show cause/contempt and go to court over it. When the court rules in his favor (assuming he is correct in his interpetation of the order), he can then file amended returns.

This is no biggie. Proceed on. File your taxes Chardog. The sooner the better. If you get hit with a tax bill, interest, and penelties, in your filing ask that SHE be ordered to pay all of your costs associated with this BS including these.

I don't understand why there is so  much difficulty when the situation seems to be clearly cut and dry.

Court orders are court orders. If it doesn't say so in the court order, then anything goes!

Just file the taxes and go from there. You won't know until you do it.

[gemini3]

Hah!  If there wasn't always so much difficulty when situations would seem to be cut and dry - none of us would be here, would we?  :-)  I'm always saying the same thing to myself.  Made me chuckle...