Divorce and Taxes

What is the name of your state? Wisconsin

Hello,

I had 2 questions regarding how divorce affects filing your taxes.

First question is, my ex and I divorced in Sept. 2002. As we were married for the majority of 2002, we were wondering what status we should file as (married?, head-of-household?, etc.).

Second question is in regards to child care (or dependent care). As the non-custodial parent, I pay a portion of my kids' child care expenses (outside of the normal child support I pay). Can I claim these expenses on my tax returns next year? Also, as my ex is also paying a portion of this child care, how do figure out how to both claim these expenses (she is using a Dependent Care account at her work).

Thanks!

If you received your divorce decree before the end of the year, and neither have remarried, you are both considerred unmarried for tax purposes. Providing that there are no other dependents than the wife, child and yourself, the parent that has custody would claim Head of Household and the child care credit. The other parent would file as Single. There could be ways around this providing that both parents are in agreement. For more information you can visithttp://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

Either of you can qualify as head of household. Only the custodial parent can claim the child care credit. However, you might be able to argue that you had custody until Sept & she had custody after that. If she's receiving dependent care benefits, cahnces are the CCC won't help her much anyway.