tax question

(DE). my question deals with pub. 501, of irs tax code. I completed all of the tests, and did the worksheets. I came to the conclusion that i do in fact pay more than 50% of my child's total support. (child was born out of wedlock ). custodial mother has been claiming child since 1998. i just recently discovered this 501 publication within the past couple of weeks. my question is this. do i have the right to file an amended return for all of the monies she claimed unlawfully since 1998, can i go back that far, if not, how far can i go back, and is there a maximum amount of relief i could seek in "damages" so to speak, for her claiming this child all of these years when in fact i had the right to do so. any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. thank you.

[gobonas99]

Two questions:

1. Are you asking about the dependent exemption or filing as Head Of Household, or both?

2. Is there a court order for custody/child support, and in this order, is there any verbage as to who will claim the exemption for the child?

See also the information in this thread:
[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147278[/url]

-Christina

i am talking about the exemption. she does not live with me, she lives with the custodial mother, but i still provide more then 50 % of the total support because of my income. she has claimed all of the child tax credits (between $2700, and $3300 per year) since 1998, as well as claimed her as a dependent as well. (publication 501 of the irs tax code says that if non custodial parent pays more then 50% of total support that this parent may claim child without mother's consent, only if child was born out of wedlock). and no, there was never an order made by the court, nor by us, to state which parent would have the right to claim the child as the dependent. this matter was left "open" for us to decide upon. she claimed all of these credits for this child, as well as the exemption, when i , in fact, had the right to. she is making a big mess in family court over an issue of medical bill monies, and if i can get an answer on this tax question it would really help. what i want to do is bring up this issue in a mediation hearing and see if the money she has received in these tax credits will effectively
" make a wash " for the monies she is complaing about to the court. i'm not seeking advice on medical bill issues, and i dont want to stir up the pot on this subject. all i seek is the answer to this very important tax question. thanks :-)

[abezon]

1. You can amend 2000, 2001, and 2002 to claim your child as a dependent. The child tax credit goes with the dependency exemption. You cannot claim any child care credits or EIC since you were nto the custodial parent.

2. Any court orders are irrelevant to who claims the dependent. When parents were never married, only the parent who paid more than 50% of the support may claim the child.

3. Whether this helps your mediation, we can't say. You can figure out how much claiming your child will help your taxes, but you can't figure out how much losing the dependency will hurt her refund. Many low income parents receive the bulk of their refund from EIC since they have such a low income, they can't use the child tax credit. However, you may be able to offer the solution that you both amend the last 3 years' taxes: she removes the dependency exeption (but keeps EIC and child care and head of household) & you claim the child. She loses very little; you get about $1200/year from the IRS. That's free money that could be used for your daughter's medical bills.

ok i called the IRS today, i was told that i can claim child if i can prove i paid 50% or more of the support, in which i was told is the food bill, utility's, childs recreation and mortgage of her home. but how do i get this information? the parent refuses to devoulge any information to me what so ever, the mortgage i think i can get, that the irs told me as long as i get the fair market value, but what about everything else? and aside the fact she just bought this house a few months ago and has been renting an apartment for the last 5 years, from what i read a judge doesnt alwas neccasarly make 1 parent tell the other what the support is used for....CoNfUsEd**************im payng $9000.00 a year in child support, and if the courts do make her give me the info what if she makes the bill's per year more, i mean ya know or does she have to prove it ... well ty for responces

[abezon]

The easiest quick calculation is for you to take her yearly income (which she has to report during any child support hearing) and divide by the number of people in the household. That's approximately what she spent on each member of the household's support. Compare this to $9,000 you pay in support PLUS any other support you paid (gifts, other expenses, health insurance, tuition, food when your daughter visits, etc.). If it looks like you've spent more than she did, file the amendment. Include the IRS support worksheet and your best estimate of how much she spent on the child. The IRS will take it from there.

She doesn't have to tell you how she spends the child support, although you could argue for a reduction if you have strong circumstantial evidence she's spending the money on things other than the child. You wouldn't get a reduction, but you might get the court to order the money paid into a trust account where her spending would be supervised.

appreciate the info, 1 more sorry, i do buy clothing almost every week for the child due to nothing is sent with her but i dont have the recipts, wil i need that? it's not a mager deal, all i realy want is to make everything even between us, i dont want to take from her or the child just make things even alos she has her b\f and his 2 kids during summer and everyother weekend, thats his deal right? she cant put them in this can she? they just moved intogether about 3 months ago. well youve been a great help much appreciated

[abezon]

If you're going to take the exemption, the IRS will want some sort of receipts. Visa bills to "Little Ones Boutique" would be sufficient, I think. I doubt you shop there for your own clothes!

No, the bf doesn't usually figure into things. You might argue that him living there now means he's paying lots of expenses and this should be considered when setting your support level. If he's paying 1/2 the bills, she has lots more disposable income than it appears she has & maybe she doesn't really need that extra money.