I need some advice on whether or not I should let my sons father claim him on his taxes. My oldest son is the one that I am referring to. He is 5 yrs. old. His dad did not pay child support for the first 2 yrs of his life. I then decided to go through child services to get child support from him without it being an issue that we had to talk about between the two of us. Since, we couldn't talk about those things without it getting escalated. Well anyways to my point. I agreed with his father that if he supported his son financially as much as I do I would alternate claiming our son on our taxes. Well this year would be his turn, but he is pretty far behind on child support. If I let him claim our son, I will basically be getting everything that he owes me all at once. I don't feel that I should let him claim because he should not be able to choose when he will be financially stable. Why should I not be allowed to have that refund when I am the one who has been supporting our son all year solo. I also would like to be able to claim him because I am trying right now to qualify for financial aid for school. Any opinions? I am really torn either way. I see his point of view that he wants to catch up on child support, but I feel I need quit giving him a break all the time, because he seems to know that I always do. He is a great father. He just isn't very responsible with money.

What did the paper work say from the court, about child support. For example, my sons dad is suppose to pay 49% of Coles expenses. To claim someone you could have to be 50% or more. Even if the man did pay full child support, I will always get to claim Cole since I'm 51% finanically responsible.

I am 49.1%, and he is 51.9% responsible, but I cannot get him to cover any medical, insurance, or daycare. Which on the court order, he is required to pay half of. We do not have anything court orderd covering who gets to claim on taxes.

From a purely financial standpoint, if he is not covering any medical, insurance or daycare then he is not 51.9% responsible. Furthermore, if he is behind on his child support payments, then in my opinion he should get caught up on them before he is allowed to claim his child.

I had this conversation with my ex who thinks that since my son stays with his grandfather after school, she was using that as an excuse to claim him on her taxes even though he was living with me except on weekends.

From a judicial standpoint, I think it best that you get this agreement in writing on who gets to claim the child and when before this escalates any further.

From a personal standpoint, If you let him slide on this now, he will want to slide on other things down the line. I am speaking from experience as a man who learned the hard way about this.

I hope I have given you something useful..

You said, �If I let him claim our son, I will basically be getting everything that he owes me all at once.�

However, you would be losing the benefit of being able to claim him. That�s a $1K credit that you would be missing out on by letting him claim him. If you take the credit, he still owes you the $$$.

From a financial standpoint, you are better off in the long run (so long as he catches up) claiming your son.

Thanks you guys!! I was pretty much feeling the same way. I just try really hard to see his point of view, and not get caught up in my resentful feelings towards him. I try really hard to keep the peace, but I am sick of letting him get his way, and be unfair to me. I do this because I see no need to fight, and we have a hard time seeing eye to eye. I think that I am going to just claim our son on my taxes, and let him figure it out on his own. That what I have always had to do.

if the boy is in your home you shouuld claim him on taxes. You put more money into him than childsupport

If I could only get his father to understand that things would be a lot easier. I don't know how to get through to him.

quote:

Originally posted by taitai:
[qb] If I could only get his father to understand that things would be a lot easier. I don't know how to get through to him. [/qb]

You may not want to even try getting through to him.

My soon to be ex understands nothing about money. In talking about the asset separation, it becomes painfully obvious.

What he is doing is looking out for himself, and you need to do the same. Money can be an ugly subject but it is a necessary evil.

The thing that I do not like is it causes friction. I don't look out for him anymore. I have moved past that. I just wish that things could be smooth between us for my sons sake. Yah know. I just want my son to be happy. It is really frustrating that we still fight over this after all of these years. Lately I just stick to the point, and he gets enraged over things. I really like his fiance, she does so much for my son. She is a great person, and I value her opinion more than my sons dad. It is causing problems that I have decided to go this route, and I don't understand why.

If you want to keep things smooth, follow through with the agreement. You said this year is his, right? Good for you for taking the high road!

You should keep your word. Even though your son is too young to understand, you should set an example of honesty just the same.

You're lucky to have a potential stepmom who's a good person!!!! How lucky are you???!!

My S.O.'s ex does everything possible to make our lives as miserable as possible, and she unknowingly makes it harder on the kids..

This might help the arguement alittle:
Form 1040A instructions, pg.42
Qualifying child of more than one person.
If the child meets the conditions to be a qualifying child of more than one person, only one person can take the EIC based on that child...If you and the other person cannot agree who will take the EIC based on the same child, the IRS will apply the following rules...YADA YADA the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during 2004..YADA YADA..(Or) the parent who had the highest adjusted gross income.

Sometimes it helps to take the blame off of you. It is only by your good graces that he be allowed to claim your son. And he hasn't earned it.

Wow! I can so relate to your situation. I talked to my ex yesterday and he informed me that he already claimed out son. I have temporary sole custody right now and pay medical insurance and daycare. His father hasn't been court ordered to pay me child support so he hasn't given me anything. I was not very happy when I found out that he claimed our son and he doesn't support him at all. Has anybody ever been in this situation? Im still going to claim him and I guess from there we will be audited.

CP2,
Go ahead and claim him if you have legal paperwork stating you provide for more than 50% of his care. The IRS will request this info and if you have proof(paperwork) then your ex will be in deep poo with the IRS.
One of my clients is former IRS employee and she used to deal with this all the time. My ex did the same thing and he will have to pay back any return he got. They tell you audit but, it is really just a confirmation with court papers.