IRS versus Idaho Court document

What is the name of your state? Idaho

My husband and I have been married since 1989. He has a child from a prior relationship who lives with the mother. In the Idaho Judgement and order of Filiation it states "W may claim L for tax purposes each year, if he has paid support in a timely manner." We pay the support as soon as the bill arrives, so that is not the problem. The problem is this: 2 months ago we received a letter from the IRS stating that for tax year 2001 somebody with his daughter's ss# was being claimed as an exemption on somebody else's taxes and that we owed almost $1,400 more dollars. We immediately sent in the court papers and waited for the response.(assuming it was an error-that had happened in 1996)

Just this week we were notified that the Idaho court document means nothing as far as Federal/IRS laws are concerned. The mother had taken his daughter as an exemption that year, and the IRS tax examiner told us this week that she has the right, since the daughter lives with her.

I find it hard to believe that this legal document means nothing in the eyes of the IRS, but it sounds like it's true. Does anybody have any knowledge/actual experience with something like this?

Thank you ever so much!

Congress wrote the laws so that judges can assign the dependency exemption when the parents of the child were once married. However, if the parents were never married, the dependency exemption can only go to the person (parent or otherwise) who pays more than 1/2 the child's support. A court cannot issue an order for parents to violate the law. Therefore, any attempt by a court to assign the dependency exemption when the parents were never married is void & has no effect.

Since the custodial parent provides the house (rent, utilities, etc.), usually the custodial parent almost always gets to claim the child. The only exception would be if the custodial parent had little or no income (welfare, supported by boyfriend, etc) or was supporting lots of kids AND the non-custodial parent paid lots of support. For example, if the custodial parent makes $12,000 and has 1 child, the IRS will assume the CP is spending $6,000 on the child. The NCP would have to provide over $6000 in support payments/insurance coverage/private school tuition/etc. to claim the child. If the CP has 3 kids, the amount spent on each child is $3000 & the NCP has a better chance of being able to prove s/he provides over 50% of the support.

If you feel you still provided over 50% of the child's support, you'll need to tell the IRS that & fill out a dependency worksheet detailing every penny you spend on the child. Don't forget to add a share of the household expenses for the days the child is visiting. Send it to the IRS, and say that you think you are paying more support than the CP pays. The IRS will then investigate.

abezon: Thank you so much for your prompt reply. We really appreciate it. I guess I had a feeling the IRS guy knew what he was talking about--darn it. I'm glad the mother didn't do this 14 years ago, so I have to look at this whole thing like we're pretty lucky.

Once again, thank you!