Claiming a dependant on taxes

What is the name of your state? IOWA

I am in need of some help:

I was divorced from my then wife in 1998. As part of that divorce we were granted shared custody with her getting physical custody. Soon after the divorce they then moved nearly 3000 miles away.

In our divorce decree it states that I can claim our son on my taxes as long as I am current in my Child Support (CS) payments. There come a time when I had gotten behind in my CS payments due to a layoff and at that time I was not able to claim him so my ex-wife did.

Before the end of tax year 2005, I was once again current with my CS payments so I asked my ex-wife to sign the form allowing me to claim him (sorry I forgot the form #) for tax year 2005 which she did.

During this process whole process in 2005 my son was told by his mother that he needed to move in with me (he was getting into trouble) or an aunt. This was not a good time for my son or my current family. I really was not given a choice in the matter except to not take him in. So shortly before Christmas of 2005 my son moved into my home and has lived with me ever since.

In October of 2006, my ex-wife sent me an email requesting that I sign the same form for tax year 2006 for her. To which I said “no”. Because 1. It was my legal right to claim him and 2. Our still in place divorce decree says that I can. She said she was going to contact her lawyer about it and I told her that was fine.

Nothing more was said and 2 weeks ago I filed my taxes and claimed my son. Yesterday she called me and asked where the ‘sign-off ‘papers were at. Once again I told her that I was not going to sign them and that I had already filed my taxes and claimed him.

Of course now she is upset and wants to sue me and get the IRS involved.

After all my background my question is this:

Was I within my legal rights to claim our son as a dependant for the 2006 tax year?

Thanks in advance
Shimmy

^^Bump^^

Please any help would be great...thx

As far as the IRS is concerned, yes, if the child primarily lived with you (and you can prove it) then you have the right to claim the child.

However, if she is now the one paying child support....you better double check your orders to make sure that she isn't the one allowed to take the exemption under the child support orders.

Thanks for the reply.

The orders are old and date back to 1998, I am listed as the 'Respondent'. When our son came to live with me, she just put him on airplane, nothing was looked into (i.e. Divorce decree being changed, taxes, his braces, etc.).

Jim

Then you have problems and mom can demand the child be sent back to her. Hav eyou continued to pay child support?

No, the mom sent him to live with me she "couldn't handle him anymore", so I doubt she would demand him back. She has been paying me Child Support (which is garnished from her pay check), since around May of 2006. The Child Support that I was paying has been stopped.

Iowa has a Child Support recovery unit that handles all the Child Support payments, they handled the stopping of my payments and the starting of her payments.

Shimmy said:

No, the mom sent him to live with me she "couldn't handle him anymore", so I doubt she would demand him back. She has been paying me Child Support (which is garnished from her pay check), since around May of 2006. The Child Support that I was paying has been stopped.

Iowa has a Child Support recovery unit that handles all the Child Support payments, they handled the stopping of my payments and the starting of her payments.

Click to expand...

Then you DO have new orders, and you need to get them out and make sure that they don't state anything regarding the tax exemption. However, on the IRS side of things you are in the clear.

the new orders only address the issue of child support, nothing more.

I just checked with the Child Support Recovery Unit and they did not modify or change the original decree, what they filed was an administrative action to have the support changed.