Tax question (I know, way too early)

[Newlydivmomto4]

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

Background: I have full legal and physical custody of our 4 children. In our divorce decree it says each parent claims 2 children as far as exemptions. It also says that we each pay 1/2 of childcare. It says nothing about claiming Dependent care expenses on taxes. Our divorce was final Dec 30 of last year, the children and I moved out Nov 30 of last year. Since the kids lived w/ "us" for more than half the year, but we were divorced by the end of the year, I claimed single, 2 kiddos and 1/2 of the daycare expenses. He claimed HOH, 2 kiddos and 1/2 of the daycare expenses.

Current question: He is bugging me about how much he will be able to claim in dependent care expenses. I told him that he can't claim any this year because from what I have read on the IRS website, the kids have to live w/ him more than 1/2 of the year for him to be able to do so. His argument is that he pays half their expenses, he should be able to claim 1/2 on his taxes. With the max you can claim for 2 kiddos being 6k, with what we pay in childcare, we could both max it out at 6k each.

Who is right?

 

[tjk]

Only the cp can claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit regardless of who is allowed to claim the child as a dependent.

 

[Isis1]

if i understood LD (the FA tax guru) correctly, you claim all four kids for dependant care. if dad does claim two, then he'll get a lovely gift of an audit.

 

[LdiJ]

if i understood LD (the FA tax guru) correctly, you claim all four kids for dependant care. if dad does claim two, then he'll get a lovely gift of an audit.

Isabella is right...dad may NOT claim daycare credits for any of the children. He does not meet the IRS regs for claiming daycare credits and the state family law court cannot assign those to him.

If he files online or uses a tax preparer (or even files himself via paper) he cannot do so without committing tax fraud.

However, that's also not your problem, its his.

I will also add that technically he cannot even claim the two children that your divorce decree allows him to claim unless you sign a form 8332 giving him the tax exemptions for those two children...and according to the IRS, they are going to be extra vigilant about that from 2009 forward.