Taxes and Cild Support

[jschipmann]

What is the name of your state? KY

Ok after nearly 10 years of giving everything to my wife, waiting on her hand and foot and etc she cheated on me and now we are in the process of filing for divorce. Obviously we are tryign to do everything as peaceful as possible. But there are two grey areas for me...


Child Support. I always told her I would never take the kids away from her, and I still stick by that even though the other man is over the house all the time, and she brings them there. But since she works a night shift I will have the kids 5 days a week.... But since she will have legal custody of the kids she wants me to pay child support to her. Granted I want to make sure the kids are taken care of and we agreed that if I pay it that we will put in writing I will not be responcible for day care bills, school lunch accounts and etc. Sounds like a decent deal but still kills me to think I have to pay her. Sadly KY law seems to point in that direction too.


The second area is Taxes. She is claiming that she knows a lot of people who one parent claims the children as exemptions and etc on thier taxes, and the other files for Earned Income Credit. But from everything I read it looks as if I would have to claim the children as exemptions to get the EIC...?? Even though She has legal custody of the children I would think I would be the custodial parent since I have them more than 50% of the time. Any ideas here?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? KY

Ok after nearly 10 years of giving everything to my wife, waiting on her hand and foot and etc she cheated on me and now we are in the process of filing for divorce. Obviously we are tryign to do everything as peaceful as possible. But there are two grey areas for me...


Child Support. I always told her I would never take the kids away from her, and I still stick by that even though the other man is over the house all the time, and she brings them there. But since she works a night shift I will have the kids 5 days a week.... But since she will have legal custody of the kids she wants me to pay child support to her. Granted I want to make sure the kids are taken care of and we agreed that if I pay it that we will put in writing I will not be responcible for day care bills, school lunch accounts and etc. Sounds like a decent deal but still kills me to think I have to pay her. Sadly KY law seems to point in that direction too.


The second area is Taxes. She is claiming that she knows a lot of people who one parent claims the children as exemptions and etc on thier taxes, and the other files for Earned Income Credit. But from everything I read it looks as if I would have to claim the children as exemptions to get the EIC...?? Even though She has legal custody of the children I would think I would be the custodial parent since I have them more than 50% of the time. Any ideas here?

Well...first, the only parent who can claim the child for the purposes of EIC is the parent with primary residential custody. If you are going to be paying her child support, then she is likely to be designated as the parent with primary residential custody.

In addition to that, the parent must qualify for EIC. That means that a single parent must make less than 30,000....and really less than 25,000 to get any kind of significant refund.

However she is correct. If the ncp gets the exemption but the cp qualifies for EIC, the cp may claim the child for the purposes of EIC only.

 

[Zephyr]

and you should familiarize yourself with the term joint legal custody

 

[jschipmann]

My ex-wife will not be able to get EIC as she makes just over the EIC limit. However I do fall in to the guidelines for EIC. But everywhere I read says that I could not file for EIC if I do not claim the two dependents.

As I said this is driving me nuts as I thought we were supposed to have full joint custody. And I dont care to pay the child support as she is the one who typically shops for the clothes and etc, and on paper we would put that I would not be responsible for day care bills, clothing etc. Which wouldnt be bad.

 

[LdiJ]

My ex-wife will not be able to get EIC as she makes just over the EIC limit. However I do fall in to the guidelines for EIC. But everywhere I read says that I could not file for EIC if I do not claim the two dependents.

As I said this is driving me nuts as I thought we were supposed to have full joint custody. And I dont care to pay the child support as she is the one who typically shops for the clothes and etc, and on paper we would put that I would not be responsible for day care bills, clothing etc. Which wouldnt be bad.

Ok...listen carefully. I am a professional tax preparer. Its not necessarily the parent who claims the exemption who can qualify for EIC. Its the parent who has resident custody of the children.

In a true joint custody situation (50/50 timeshare no parent designated as residential parent), NEITHER parent can claim EIC.

If the children live with you more than 50% of the time, AND your wife isn't designated the residential parent (which is iffy if you would be paying child support) AND you qualify for EIC, you may claim head of household and claim the EIC. She may then take the children as exemptions.

In other words, its WRONG that someone must claim a child as a dependent in order to claim the child for EIC purposes.