Hello,

I have a question regarding taxes. The non-custodial father of our 3 year old son wants to be able to claim his son every other year. He plans to take me to court over this issue because he belives he spends more money on our son than I do. The father has visitation every other weekend and lives aprox. 90 miles away. I am also on cash aid and work 20 hours per week. I pay rent and utilities. The father is currently having his wages garnished, aprox $250 a month for child support. however, that money goes to the state because I am on assistance. Is there any way he can have a court order him to be able to claim his son on his taxes?
Please help.
denice

Denice,
My ex tried to set that up in the original divorce papers. More than likely the judge will follow the tax laws on this. The tax law is if the child lives in your home more months during the year than the other parent. That is who rightfully gets to claim him. Don't let him scare you. Don't agree to this. It'll more than likely never happen. The paying parent always thinks they pay more than you do. Even if he does pay more than you, so what! That is his son. Don't feel bad. It is not a contest. He probably makes more money than you and can afford more. This still doesn't give him the right to claim him. The child lives with you.

Denice,
The way this works in Florida (remember the IRS is Federal Government not state) ... if it is not in your final divorce decree or custody papers that you rotate years, the IRS goes by the proof that the residential parent provides for the child more than 50% of the time. My ex tried this... I was able to file my papers with the IRS (he had already filed and claimed her without my knowledge) when the question arose I had to prove (final decree) that I was the primary residential parent. I got my return and he had to pay back the IRS.
Good Luck!
Carla

denise,
Not to worry, it'll never happen for him. It would recquire filing as head of household and you are obviously the one with the child the majority of the time.

Though IMO it would be nice to see some sort of deduction for those that do pay their child support.

Don,
What is IMO? Also, why do you think that the payer should get a deduction for paying for their own child? Just curious, because I have heard others say this when hearing discussions about paying their support.

Thinker,
IMO ... in my opinion.
I agree with Don. I do believe the child support provider... if they do actually provide ... should get a small deduction. They are contributing to their childs welfare after all. Although it should not be the same as head of household.
Carla

I look at these things from both sides. I have one of my daughter fulltime and therefore I am head of household. I also pay support for another daughter.
Now understand that I do know what is involved in being the head of household and financing that as well as all the deductions possible, medical, dental, daycare, etc besides just the lowered tax bracket you are placed in. And I also know what it's like to pay for some of that the other direction and not be able to deduct for any of it that goes towards those costs even though as a payer I still must keep my own household financed. Up until 3 1/2 years ago I was paying support for both these daughters and no deductions for it. I really do think it would be fair to be able to take some sort of deduction for child support paid. And no, nothing like claiming head of household bracket. Maybe just a percentage of to be taken from net income before the tax liability amount is derived.
I even think that to at least some degree it might be more incentive for a deadbeats to pay their support(yes I'm sure that would be few and far between, but it still could help) I have personally struggled to meet child support obligations while maintaining a very modest living.
I'll even tell another story of the system and child support. I believe it is still true. If a parent is receiving state aid so that the non custodial parent's child support actually goes back to the state, as long as the support is paid the parent on aid receives an extra $50 for that month. If the non custodial parent is in arrears, as the arrears are paid up to date, the non custodial parent recieves the extra $50 from the previous months as it is paid up to date. If the system can bend the budgets like that for custodial parents than couldn't they accomodate the non custodial parent to some degree for being responsible enough to pay to help support their child as well as maintain their own household without benefit of a lesser tax bracket, etc.
Yes I would still like to receive some sort of additional deduction for the support I pay out every month, while maintaining my household and raising my daughter, and to note I do not recieve child support for her either.

I guess the short answer is, if the custodial parent gets deductions for paying for their own child, when some of that may be/should be coming from the payer, then why shouldn't the payer recieve some sort of deduction as well.

Maybe we will see this happen in the future. I didn't think about that as an incentive to pay the support, but that would probably be a very small percentage of people. Also, the weekly amount of money they pay, and only being able to deduct a certain amount of that amount, wouldn't really tally up to be worth a whole lot for them to deduct. I guess I can see your point though.

Carla,
Thanks for clarifying that for me. Usually my daughter has to tell me what all the abbreviations and that mean. Like this little happy face here :-) (She wasn't around when I wrote that).

quote:

Originally posted by denice:
[qb]Hello,

I have a question regarding taxes. The non-custodial father of our 3 year old son wants to be able to claim his son every other year. He plans to take me to court over this issue because he belives he spends more money on our son than I do. The father has visitation every other weekend and lives aprox. 90 miles away. I am also on cash aid and work 20 hours per week. I pay rent and utilities. The father is currently having his wages garnished, aprox $250 a month for child support. however, that money goes to the state because I am on assistance. Is there any way he can have a court order him to be able to claim his son on his taxes?
Please help.
denice[/qb]

It depends on your state laws. My daughter lives with me full time and my ex has visitation. My ex and I (we were never married) but he does pay support and he gets to deduct her every other year.

quote:

Originally posted by Kati:
[qb]


It depends on your state laws. My daughter lives with me full time and my ex has visitation. My ex and I (we were never married) but he does pay support and he gets to deduct her every other year.[/qb]

Kati, Is he deducting just on state taxes, or is he filing as head of household on federal taxes? I'm confused by this since the federal tax laws say that he would have to have custody for more than six months of the year. I do know of people that have agreed to alternate years for claiming on taxes, and even allowing the paying parent to claim every year, but that is something that was agreed upon by them since the way the fed law is written, the custodial parent is considered to be the one with the dependant for tax purposes.
Or is this just a deduction for child support payments that he gets as a single filer through the state system?
Please elaborate.

Kati,
Dconstructs is correct. Federal law is different from the state law. If you didn't agree to this on paper, you are the one who has the right to claim your child if the child lives with you. The law is clear on this.

Kati,
I thought about this and even asked my attorney this morning. If you have alternating years or the non custodial parents gets every year... state (in most) and federal taxes .... the child support will reflect this ... it will be more. I asked this question because of the situation with my ex has not been put on paper either way. I think he will think twice after having to repay the IRS for 2002. If not he will have to go through it again. The only draw back is it holds up any return I may have.
Carla

Wait... he pays $250 a month and thinks that he's putting out more than you? HAHAHAHAHAHAHa
ok, sorry, that's over.
My idiot ex DID claim Bo on his taxes. Twice! I only found out because I got a happy lil' letter from the IRS saying I was getting audited. Long story short, all I had to do was send them things like day care bills, a few wal-mart reciepts, sports fees, ect, and the Custody agreement that shouwed how much DeadBeat actaully had him. He is still paying them back (tho DB told me "oh, 'they' said it was OK 'cause I didn't know, and just not to do it again." Didn't know WHAt, moron? that there was no kid in your house most of the time???
K, I'm done.
Anyway, don't let him bully you. The only way he could even TRY to get away with it is if you fill out an IRS form stating that he is allowed, as per you, the primary parent. Without that form, he's SOL, even if you did verbally tell him he could do it!

You can go to court have order made the fact about the IRS check and also call IRS