deadbeat dad

[abstract99]

That was state court...it has nothing to do with the IRS regs....or tax court case law. This is where you are getting confused....and its very easy to get confused...because what state courts order and what the IRS rules are is often very contradictory.

If the states courts merely followed the IRS regs, then the non-custodial parent would never be allowed the exemption without the express agreement of the custodial parent.

I never said it had anything to do with anything! I just said it was interesting.

 

[LdiJ]

Here they are again:

Are there court orders stating that he gets to claim the child every other year for tax purposes? I guess yes, but it says that he has do them, give them to me to sing the 8332 then i have to file them.

Are you ordered to provide him a signed form 8332? I don't know, it just says he has to give it to me, before a certain date, Jan. 1st of every other year, I think.

Did you sign a form 8332? NO, and my mom's tax preparer made her a copy of the form to give to me and said I shouldn't sign it.

Did you sign an agreement allowing him the tax deduction every other year?I think so, see, I was so cofused and alone that I had no idea what was going on. The hearing officer just said that I should, because the judge would say the samething anyways. Then i find out that, isn't true.

Is dad paying child support regularly and consistantly?Yes, but like I said the amount my son should be getting he doesn't since the Human Service Department takes their cut first. Then we only get $50 a month as an "allowance". Which I hear that only a few states actually give allowances. So I am lucky that I even get that. So until he has paid off what I have been getting I continually only get $50. Which barely buys a month's worth of pampers.

Are you aware that even if dad gets the exemption you are still entitled to file head of household and still qualify for earned income credit and daycare credits? (assuming that your income qualifies you for that). No, I wasn't aware of that, but will I have to payback since I get the CS as income, or does CS not count?

Now here are a couple more:

Who had you sign the papers in the court lobby? Your ex? or your ex's attorney? Neither of us had attorney's, I was alone, he was with his mother-in-law who seemed to know everything and everyone, and then a hearing officer.

Why did you believe that you HAD to sign the papers? Because they told me I didn't know that I didn't have to or that I could simply say "no" I'll see you in court.

Ok, since all of this happened recently, then I really think that you need to consult an attorney. There should be a mechanism where you can attempt to withdraw your agreement based on your lack of understanding about what was happening.

You also need to make sure that there is a clause in the agreement...or in the eventual orders, that denies him the exemption if he is in arrears on child support.

However, if the hearing officer told you that the judge was going to order it anyway...whether you agreed or not, then its highly likely that the judge would do exactly that. Many, if not most judge's automatically give the tax exemption every other year to the ncp, in order to give them an incentive to pay their child support.

Now....back to your situation. Even though the father might get the exemption every other year....because you are the custodial parent you still would have tax benefits where the child is concerned, even on the years that he gets the exemption.

You would still qualify for head of household status (with your son as your qualifying child) and you would still qualify for Earned Income Credit, again with your child as your qualifying child.

Therefore, until your income gets above 25,000 or so, you are still going to get a bigger tax break on the years that dad has the exemption, than dad will...you will still get a tax break (but not necessarily a bigger one) until your income exceeds 30k.

So don't panic too much about the fact that dad may get the exemption every other year....you still get tax benefits too.

DO NOT sign a form 8332 for more than ONE year at a time (the form gives you the option to sign for specific future years as well...DO NOT do that).

 

[LdiJ]

I never said it had anything to do with anything! I just said it was interesting.

Sorry, but when you get "hot under the collar" its hard to tell the difference between you being serious and you being sarcastic....if I mis-read your comment, I apologize.

 

[LdiJ]

I am not gonna bother. Seeing how I don't care AT ALL about what it says then you can feel free to copy and paste but otherwize... who cares? This is becoming a waste of my time and as I am starting to see pointless!

If you don't care at all then why in the world did you drag this thread out like this? I do happen to care very much because most people are totally confused about what is and isn't possible/legal etc., when it comes to tax exemptions......and the difference between IRS regs/policies and state court rulings.....and mess themselves up considerably at tax time as a result.

Either they do their taxes wrong and end up having to amend them....or their taxes are technically correct but they get dinged by the state court judge for not obeying the orders.

If you had any idea how many amendments I did this year for people due to those kinds of issues you would understand why I care so much about accurate tax information getting posted here.