Taxes? never married

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

i need to know if my daughters dad should be able to claim our daughter on his taxes for this year. here are the details.

our daughter will be 3 in May
dad and i were never married
we have been split up for a little over a year
dad recently got married
dad just now (this past month) agreed to pay child support and flipped out when he heard the words back pay. plus he thinks i should pay him child support because i make more money then him.
daughter is with me majority of the time. she stays with him 2 nights a week and every other weekend which is 2 nights.
dad is hateful to me and never wants to work things out together. hes always cussing and yelling at me infront of our daughter. dad thinks im being selfish for wanting our daughter to goto school/daycare.

Dad wants to claim our daughter on his taxes. I'm not sure how this works when we were never married. I feel like I should be able to claim her every year. He has his own life going on now and the only reason he wants to claim her is because of the return. I do way more for our daughter then he does. I dont think he deserves it. But i want to do what is right. even though we werent married do we still trade up every other year or can I file every year and give dad a certain percentage? i just dont know where this subject stands at all. Help please!

awest0713 said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

i need to know if my daughters dad should be able to claim our daughter on his taxes for this year. here are the details.

our daughter will be 3 in May
dad and i were never married
we have been split up for a little over a year
dad recently got married
dad just now (this past month) agreed to pay child support and flipped out when he heard the words back pay. plus he thinks i should pay him child support because i make more money then him.
daughter is with me majority of the time. she stays with him 2 nights a week and every other weekend which is 2 nights.
dad is hateful to me and never wants to work things out together. hes always cussing and yelling at me infront of our daughter. dad thinks im being selfish for wanting our daughter to goto school/daycare.

Dad wants to claim our daughter on his taxes. I'm not sure how this works when we were never married. I feel like I should be able to claim her every year. He has his own life going on now and the only reason he wants to claim her is because of the return. I do way more for our daughter then he does. I dont think he deserves it. But i want to do what is right. even though we werent married do we still trade up every other year or can I file every year and give dad a certain percentage? i just dont know where this subject stands at all. Help please!

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He cannot claim the child. For one, in order to claim the child as a dependent the child must live with him for at least half of the year. That means six months and one day.

There is also a tie-breaker when both parents want to claim the child:

If two or more taxpayers claim a dependent as a qualifying child in the same year, the IRS will use the following tie-breaker tests to determine which taxpayer is eligible to claim the dependent. The tie-breaker tests are listed in order of priority.

The child will be the qualifying child of the: 1 - parent, 2 - the parent with whom the child lived for the longest time during the year, 3 - If the time is equal, then the parent with the highest AGI gets to claim the child, and 4 - is not relevant to you.

what does AGI mean?

awest0713 said:

what does AGI mean?

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I am sorry, awest. AGI means adjusted gross income

Antigone*of*Greece said:

He cannot claim the child. For one, in order to claim the child as a dependent the child must live with him for at least half of the year. That means six months and one day.

There is also a tie-breaker when both parents want to claim the child:

If two or more taxpayers claim a dependent as a qualifying child in the same year, the IRS will use the following tie-breaker tests to determine which taxpayer is eligible to claim the dependent. The tie-breaker tests are listed in order of priority.

The child will be the qualifying child of the: 1 - parent, 2 - the parent with whom the child lived for the longest time during the year, 3 - If the time is equal, then the parent with the highest AGI gets to claim the child, and 4 - is not relevant to you.

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All of the above is true.

There is, however, one more thing Dad can do. He could go to court to get the judge to order Mom to sign an 8332 form for the IRS which would entitle him to claim the deduction. I can't say that the odds are great for this in this situation, but it's possible.

OP also needs to run the child support calculator for her state. It is entirely possible that she MIGHT have to pay child support to the father, even though the child is only with him 156 nights a year.

thank you i googled it. lol

i tried to get dad to go with me to a lawyer just so we could settle it the right way. dad refused and i guess is going to his own lawyer to fight it..? dad thinks i should do what i know is fair and right instead of going through a lawyer. i wonder if he already knows that he cant claim her unless i just say its ok. i dont know what dad is thinking. but would u recommend that i just call up a local lawyer ( i dont have a specific lawyer) and simply ask what to do?

mistoffolees said:

OP also needs to run the child support calculator for her state. It is entirely possible that she MIGHT have to pay child support to the father, even though the child is only with him 156 nights a year.

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everything has already been filed for him to pay me child support.

Out of every 14 days, how many days does dad have kiddo? Is it four or six?

You say you make more money. How much do you make, and how much does dad make?

Regardless of who claims the child, only the custodial parent (the one with more overnights) gets to take the Child and Dependent Care credit and EIC.

i make $9.00 and i doubt he makes much less then me. but to him it means everything. i have her 9 out of 14 days.

awest0713 said:

i make $9.00 and i doubt he makes much less then me. but to him it means everything. i have her 9 out of 14 days.

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That's not what you said. You said he had her 2 nights every week and 2 nights every other weekend. By my calculation, that means you have her 8 nights out of 14.

But it's probably a moot point. If you're in the $9 / hour range, even if he's making minimum wage, it would be unlikely that you'd be paying support - even if he goes back to ask for a modification.

Based on what you've said, you get the deduction. That part is very clear. Your child support order is in place, so that's what he has to pay.

The only reason you probably want to run the calculator is to get some idea of what the guidelines are for your state. If, for example, the guidelines say he should be paying you $30 per week and he's currently paying you $70 per week, he could go back to court to get a modification. If the difference is small, it's probably not worth the trouble. If the difference is large, you might want to negotiate with him rather than have a major reduction. You might even find that you're better off with a higher support figure even if he gets the deduction, so you might trade the deduction for him not going back to court to reduce the child support. But you can't do any of that evaluation unless you know what the standards are in your state.

So, run the calculator for your state and answer 2 questions:

1. What is the standard amount for your state?
2. What is he currently paying?

Might be a close call if you go to court over the child dependency. You have her 64% and he has her 36%. Depending on what the child support is, I wouldn't roll over and just hand it over. If the judge orders that he gets the dependency, make sure it stipulates that he gets it only if he is current on child support.

awest0713 said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

i need to know if my daughters dad should be able to claim our daughter on his taxes for this year. here are the details.

our daughter will be 3 in May
dad and i were never married
we have been split up for a little over a year
dad recently got married
dad just now (this past month) agreed to pay child support and flipped out when he heard the words back pay. plus he thinks i should pay him child support because i make more money then him.
daughter is with me majority of the time. she stays with him 2 nights a week and every other weekend which is 2 nights.
dad is hateful to me and never wants to work things out together. hes always cussing and yelling at me infront of our daughter. dad thinks im being selfish for wanting our daughter to goto school/daycare.

Dad wants to claim our daughter on his taxes. I'm not sure how this works when we were never married. I feel like I should be able to claim her every year. He has his own life going on now and the only reason he wants to claim her is because of the return. I do way more for our daughter then he does. I dont think he deserves it. But i want to do what is right. even though we werent married do we still trade up every other year or can I file every year and give dad a certain percentage? i just dont know where this subject stands at all. Help please!

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Legally, the parent with whom the child primarily lives (in this case you) is the only parent entitled to claim the child for tax purposes unless you were to voluntarily release the exemption to him by signing a form 8332.

Therefore, unless a court orders you to give dad a form 8332 to allow him to claim the child on alternate years, its not going to happen unless you agree. If dad takes the issue to court its quite possible that a judge would order you to alternate the exemption with dad.

You absolutely are not required to share your tax refund with dad, nor would he be required to share any of his tax refund with you if you released the exemption to him.

thank you all for your replies. you have all helped so much.