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Seperated wife thinks she can claim head of household

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jtlind01

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky
I am an active duty military soldier stationed at ft. knox ky, originally from louisville, ky. I was deployed in iraq from may 2007 until july 2008. during this time my wife lived in our home with our daughter in ga where i was stationed at the time. in april of 2008 before i came home she abandoned the dogs and the house and took off to michigan with my daughter. i returned on july 3rd and picked up my daughter from michigan until my wife snatched her out of daycare and took off to michigan with her again (which was apparently legal since we were still married). she had her for one week before i got an order for emergency custody and had the police remove my child from her home. that was mid october when i picked her back up and she has lived with me since. i give all this background because i just filed my taxes and filed as head of household. my wife called asking what i did for taxes and she informed me i can't claim my own daughter as a dependent. because i was deployed to iraq in jan 2008 and she didn't take off til late april it still counts as my daughter lived with me since they resided at my home that whole time and lived solely off my income right? on top of that the fact that i have sole custody of my daughter and provide 100% of her support since late july that would count as me being the head of household right. my wife and i have been seperated more than the last six months of this last calendar year so that qualifies me right along with the fact that i have sole custody of her since october and since were still haven't gotten divorced and i have provided almost all of her support i can claim her can't i? my wife is saying she is going to claim her. if she does how will the irs sort that out, my return was accepted on the 24th and as of the other day on the 27th the wife still hadn't filed but expect she will soon? any input would be greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


TinkerBelleLuvr

Senior Member
Temporary absences. Your child is considered to have lived with you during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as:
Illness,

Education,

Business,

Vacation, or

Military service
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html#en_US_publink100032205

Can you give date ranges for who had her where in which state from which date?

Special Test for Qualifying Child of More Than One Person
If your qualifying child is not a qualifying child for anyone else, this test does not apply to you and you do not need to read about it. This is also true if your qualifying child is not a qualifying child for anyone else except your spouse with whom you file a joint return. If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules for children of divorced or separated parents described earlier, see Applying this special test to divorced or separated parents, later.
Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, and support tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child. To meet this special test, you must be the person who can treat the child as a qualifying child.

If you and another person have the same qualifying child, you and the other person(s) can decide which of you will treat the child as a qualifying child. That person can take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit) based on the qualifying child.

The exemption for the child.

The child tax credit.

Head of household filing status.

The credit for child and dependent care expenses.

The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.

The earned income credit.


The other person cannot take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person cannot agree to divide these tax benefits between you.

If you and the other person(s) cannot agree on who will claim the child and more than one person files a return claiming the same child, the IRS will disallow all but one of the claims using the tie-breaker rule in Table 3-2.

Table 3-2.When More Than One Person Files a Return Claiming the Same Qualifying Child (Tie-Breaker Rule)


Caution. If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules for children of divorced or separated parents, see Applying this special test to divorced or separated parents.

IF more than one person files a return claiming the same qualifying child and . . . THEN the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the. . .
only one of the persons is the child's parent, parent.
two of the persons are parents of the child and they do not file a joint return together, parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year.
two of the persons are parents of the child, they do not file a joint return together, and the child lived with each parent the same amount of time during the year, parent with the higher adjusted gross income (AGI).
none of the persons are the child's parent, person with the highest AGI.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html#en_US_publink100032205

I know how I'm leaning on this answer, so please answer my question.
 

jtlind01

Junior Member
ok i deployed may of 2007 the marriage was still good and wife and child lived in our home. i came home on leave mid tour jan 5th -jan 23rd marriage was still good and both still lived at our home in GA. I returned to Iraq and three weeks later found out about her extra marital affair. we talked about working things out for a few months and both were stil residing in our home (rental) in GA until late April of 2008. During the periods from Jan 08 - April 08 she was jobless and had been for some time. I was the sole wage earner. She left a note on our neighbors door and 40 dollars in late April 08 saying to watch the dogs and she would be back. She never returned so from late April until late July she lived with my wife in Michigan. Unsure about what she was doing for work. I was putting 300 a month in a seperate acct at that time for her to pay for my daughters daycare. After returning from iraq in july i came to an agreement with her that I would keep her for a year. So from late july 08 until early oct 08 myself and my daughter lived together in my residence in GA with no monetary support for daycare or anything else coming from my wife. In early oct 08 she magically showed up at her daycare pulled her out one day and took off with her to michigan. i retained a lawyer and filed for divorce and got an emergency order for custody of my daughter based on the condition of the house she abandoned and had my daughter living in amongst other things all within a week of her snatching her. took two days to drive to michign and with police help and my custody order removed my daughter from her mothers home. So from mid oct 08 - nov 12 she lived with me at our home in ga until we moved to ky for a reassignment to ft knox ky. we have lived together here in ky from nov 12 to present. Is this what you were looking for as far as timeline or did i leave anything out. thank you for your help
 

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