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Claiming a dependant who isn't one

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S

Sinsaint

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

My husband has a child with another woman (never married her). They have never had an actual court order specifying who has custody. My step-daughter's mother did file for child support back in 2001. At that time it was pretty much a 50/50 split as to where she resided and the Domestic Relations Office never specified who should claim the child for tax purposes (I have a son with another man and my order specifies that my ex gets to claim our son as a dependant).

About four years ago my step-daughter moved in with us but my husband still continued to pay support through the courts because he thought the money should proved her a home when she did go to see her mother. Long story short, her mom went AWAL a long time ago. We gave her a truck so she could come up here and get her, we added her to our cell phone plan so she could talk to her (or text or whatever). I took in her dog when she moved to an apartment that didn't allow pets. I even babysat her other child over the summer so my step-daughter could see her sister. But now she's apparently forgotten where we live along with our phone numbers because she won't respond to us.

I asked my step-daughter yesterday when she last slept at her mom's house. She's 17 (so she would know) and she said she can't remember. My husband and I had had it. He went down last week to Domestic Relations and had his support order dropped. My husband also cancelled her cell phone. She has forgotten everything about her daughter with the apparent exception of her social security number. I went to e-file our taxes and they were rejected because someone else already claimed her. Well, I know who that someone is and she certainly didn't support her. I almost laugh because quite frankly we should be claiming the mother and her other child as our dependants since the majority of her income up until last week came from my husband's support checks.

After two days of discussions with the IRS I was finally told I would have to print out and mail my taxes in. I've already contacted the school and they have records of our address being her home for at least three years. I also went to the doctor's office today to request any and all records of my husband or I consenting to medical care. She has epilepsy and I have taken her for all the testing, neurology appointments, etc. At first I just was glad to be done with her but over the past few days my attidude has changed. How much trouble can she get into for claiming a dependant that she shouldn't have? She gets EIC every year and once told me she got over $5,000 back one year. That would have been awesome if even a dime of it went to support her daughter.
 


LdiJ

LdiJ

Senior Member
Sinsaint said:
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

My husband has a child with another woman (never married her). They have never had an actual court order specifying who has custody. My step-daughter's mother did file for child support back in 2001. At that time it was pretty much a 50/50 split as to where she resided and the Domestic Relations Office never specified who should claim the child for tax purposes (I have a son with another man and my order specifies that my ex gets to claim our son as a dependant).

About four years ago my step-daughter moved in with us but my husband still continued to pay support through the courts because he thought the money should proved her a home when she did go to see her mother. Long story short, her mom went AWAL a long time ago. We gave her a truck so she could come up here and get her, we added her to our cell phone plan so she could talk to her (or text or whatever). I took in her dog when she moved to an apartment that didn't allow pets. I even babysat her other child over the summer so my step-daughter could see her sister. But now she's apparently forgotten where we live along with our phone numbers because she won't respond to us.

I asked my step-daughter yesterday when she last slept at her mom's house. She's 17 (so she would know) and she said she can't remember. My husband and I had had it. He went down last week to Domestic Relations and had his support order dropped. My husband also cancelled her cell phone. She has forgotten everything about her daughter with the apparent exception of her social security number. I went to e-file our taxes and they were rejected because someone else already claimed her. Well, I know who that someone is and she certainly didn't support her. I almost laugh because quite frankly we should be claiming the mother and her other child as our dependants since the majority of her income up until last week came from my husband's support checks.

After two days of discussions with the IRS I was finally told I would have to print out and mail my taxes in. I've already contacted the school and they have records of our address being her home for at least three years. I also went to the doctor's office today to request any and all records of my husband or I consenting to medical care. She has epilepsy and I have taken her for all the testing, neurology appointments, etc. At first I just was glad to be done with her but over the past few days my attidude has changed. How much trouble can she get into for claiming a dependant that she shouldn't have? She gets EIC every year and once told me she got over $5,000 back one year. That would have been awesome if even a dime of it went to support her daughter.
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Once the IRS investigates and finds out that she was not the one entitled to claim the child, she will have to pay back the IRS the excess refund she received, with interest and penalties. She will also be prohibited from claiming EIC for any child, for either two years or ten years, depending on whether or not the IRS decides that it was deliberate fraud or not.
 
P

Proserpina

Senior Member
LdiJ said:
Once the IRS investigates and finds out that she was not the one entitled to claim the child, she will have to pay back the IRS the excess refund she received, with interest and penalties. She will also be prohibited from claiming EIC for any child, for either two years or ten years, depending on whether or not the IRS decides that it was deliberate fraud or not.
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Wow, I did not know that!

Very interesting to know.
 
S

Sinsaint

Member
LdiJ said:
Once the IRS investigates and finds out that she was not the one entitled to claim the child, she will have to pay back the IRS the excess refund she received, with interest and penalties. She will also be prohibited from claiming EIC for any child, for either two years or ten years, depending on whether or not the IRS decides that it was deliberate fraud or not.
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She used to work for H&R Block filing other peoples' taxes. If anyone would know you would think it would be her.
 
S

Sinsaint

Member
Okay. The IRS told me if her mother doesn't amend her taxes after the first notice, her and I both will be required to show proof of why we think she is our dependant. They were pretty vague on what that proof would be. I went to the school and requested any and all paperwork that my husband or I signed as far back as they can. I spoke to the school nurse and she said she will write a statement that during my step-daughter's 9th, 10th and 11th grade years she has only ever had contact with myself and my husband.

I called her doctor's office and requested any paperwork that I or my husband signed for her care. They called me back this morning and said they have a few. One of the doctor's notations stated that "the step-mother" was present for the exam and that was almost two years ago. Also, her mother and my step-daughter's doctor had a falling out years ago. The doctor dropped the mother and her other child as a patient and told her she was no longer welcome on the premises. They agreed to keep my step-daughter as a patient proved that either myself or my husband bring her in for the appointments. I don't know if the doctor will put that in writing for me though, but I'm going to ask anyway. And no.... I have no idea what she did to piss off the doctor. I still need to get the records from the neurologist (that's at a different office).

I'm going to my bank later today to see if I can get copies of old checks that I wrote out for my step-daughters lunch money (in the memo I always put her name and student ID number made out to the school cafeteria). That will probably cost me a pretty penny but oh well.We also used to pay her mother an extra $100 per month through our bank's bill pay and I would always type in "Extra Support" in the memo. We stopped that when she moved in. On-line I can only pull up the last 24 months but in that time there were no checks to her. I printed that page out. On my biller info page for her it says it was last updated in '07 so clearly I didn't just add her to lie about giving her extra money so I printed that out too. I'm just hoping the bank has copies of those checks that far back.

I'm also considering asking the neighbors to write a brief statement as to how often my step-daughter cuts through their yard walking to the bus stop (that would be daily for years now). When I do get my tax return back I'm going to redecorate her bedroom. I have dated pictures from years ago and I'm going to make sure after we redecorate that I get a date stamp on the picture. They should be able to tell it's the same room because she want's to keep the wall mural and wallies, just new bedding, curtains, different paint color and a fish aquarium.

Lastly, I rough guessed her income at $20,000 (she's a casual worker...) and she has no spouse. My husband's gross adjusted this year was $67,000. If you divide her $20,000 by three each household member's would be roughly $6,600. If you divide my husband's $67,000 by six (husband, wife and our four kids including my step-daughter) it comes out to roughly $11,100 per member. Now add in his support payments. Clearly we supported the girl. Not her mother.

Does this sound Like enough proof? If not what else should I do?
 
D

davew128

Senior Member
Sinsaint said:
Lastly, I rough guessed her income at $20,000 (she's a casual worker...) and she has no spouse. My husband's gross adjusted this year was $67,000. If you divide her $20,000 by three each household member's would be roughly $6,600. If you divide my husband's $67,000 by six (husband, wife and our four kids including my step-daughter) it comes out to roughly $11,100 per member. Now add in his support payments. Clearly we supported the girl. Not her mother.

Does this sound Like enough proof? If not what else should I do?
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Your INCOME is irrelevant to the conversation. Your INCOME is not SUPPORT.
 
S

Sinsaint

Member
davew128 said:
Your INCOME is irrelevant to the conversation. Your INCOME is not SUPPORT.
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I don't mean to sound stupid. I was under the impression that to claim a dependant that person had to A) live under your roof the majority of the year and/or B) provide the financial majority of the support. I don't work (I care for our autistic son who does not receive SSD or anything else). The only money we have coming into our home is my husband's pay check and the support I receive for my son from my ex. My ex only gets our son every other weekend, holidays etc. He lives with me primarily. However, because I had no income and his father was providing all of his financial support he was awarded the tax credit. Even though he is under my roof 90% of the time, because I technically don't contribute any financial support I cannot claim him.

Maybe I'm wrong. I thought determining whether or not a child is a dependant was a combination of where the child resides (past, present) and who financially supported (or had the ability to via income) the child more. Both physically and financially we supported her more.
 
D

davew128

Senior Member
Having income has nothing to do with providing support. You could earn a million dollars and not contribute a dime. You could earn nothing and contribute $20k from accumulated money not earned during the year. That's why using income as a measure of support is useless.
 
LdiJ

LdiJ

Senior Member
Sinsaint said:
I don't mean to sound stupid. I was under the impression that to claim a dependant that person had to A) live under your roof the majority of the year and/or B) provide the financial majority of the support. I don't work (I care for our autistic son who does not receive SSD or anything else). The only money we have coming into our home is my husband's pay check and the support I receive for my son from my ex. My ex only gets our son every other weekend, holidays etc. He lives with me primarily. However, because I had no income and his father was providing all of his financial support he was awarded the tax credit. Even though he is under my roof 90% of the time, because I technically don't contribute any financial support I cannot claim him.

Maybe I'm wrong. I thought determining whether or not a child is a dependant was a combination of where the child resides (past, present) and who financially supported (or had the ability to via income) the child more. Both physically and financially we supported her more.
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When two parents are involved, the support question is whether or not both parents combined provide over 50% of the child's support. Since your husband is providing all of the child's support, then both parents combined are providing more than 50% of the child's support. Therefore that is an irrelevant issue.

The issue in this case is who is the custodial parent of the child, by IRS definition, and that is definitely your husband.
 
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