Taxes

[mandelbrot007]

State CA

What is the name of your state? Our order says mother and daughter alternate in claiming the child as a dependent. This year (for 2019), mom will claim the child. I am wondering if I still file as Head of the Household. On paper, we have 50/50 custody. But last year, my daughter stayed with me for around 15 days more as mom was traveling. Other than the email trail surrounding that and court order, I do not have anything else to prove that my child stayed with me for more than 6 months. There is a line in the excerpt from turbo tax that says I might be eligible but I wanted to be sure. Please let me know

Qualifying child
The requirement for a qualifying child or dependent extends beyond just your own son or daughter. To be considered a qualifying child, the child must meet the criteria in each of the following categories:

• The child must be your biological or adopted child, stepchild, foster child, sibling, step sibling, half sibling, or a descendant (child, grandchild, great grandchild, etc.) of one of these relatives.
• The child must have lived within your home for more than six months during the tax year.
• The child needs to be younger than you.
• As of the end of the tax year, the child must be under 19 if he is not a student, or under 24 if he is a full-time college student.
• The child must not have paid for more than half of his living expenses during the tax year.

In some cases, you may be eligible to file as head of household even if you are unable to claim your child as a dependent. For divorced or separated parents, if the child lived in your home for more than half of the year, you may file as head of household, even if the divorce or separation agreement gives the other parent the right to claim the child as a dependent.

 

[Zigner]

I believe you misstated something. You said "Our order says mother and daughter alternate in claiming the child as a dependent." Did you mean that the mother and father (you) alternate?

 

[mandelbrot007]

Yes, sorry about that. mom on odd numbered years and me on even-numbered years

 

[Taxing Matters]

As you can see from the part you put in bold, head of household filing status requires that the child live with you for the greater part of the year, i.e. 183+ days in most years, 187+ days in leap years. That test is generally done by comparing the number of nights the kid stayed in your home versus the number of nights that the kid stayed with mom. As for proving the number of nights should the IRS ask about it, my recommendation to clients is to keep a calendar in which the client notes each night of the year that kid stayed at the client's house as it happens, i.e. a contemporaneous record rather than one created after the fact. Other documentation, like e-mails coordinating the nights with each parent, etc., should be retained too as additional evidence. You aren't required to keep a calendar and other evidence can suffice if it is detailed enough to show exactly which nights the kid was with you, but I've found that the calendar is a pretty easy way to do it.

 

[LdiJ]

As you can see from the part you put in bold, head of household filing status requires that the child live with you for the greater part of the year, i.e. 183+ days in most years, 187+ days in leap years. That test is generally done by comparing the number of nights the kid stayed in your home versus the number of nights that the kid stayed with mom. As for proving the number of nights should the IRS ask about it, my recommendation to clients is to keep a calendar in which the client notes each night of the year that kid stayed at the client's house as it happens, i.e. a contemporaneous record rather than one created after the fact. Other documentation, like e-mails coordinating the nights with each parent, etc., should be retained too as additional evidence. You aren't required to keep a calendar and other evidence can suffice if it is detailed enough to show exactly which nights the kid was with you, but I've found that the calendar is a pretty easy way to do it.

I agree that the calendar is a good idea, but when the IRS audits for head of household they usually ask for outside source information to confirm with whom the children primarily lives. They look for things like whose address is on file with the doctor, school, daycare etc.. They also generally require proof that the child is your child (they even do that to intact families sometimes). They also cross check the welfare records to see if either parent is receiving benefits for the children.

It is also possible that mom has already filed a return using the child as a head of household qualifier (even though she should not have done so) which means the OP would have to file a paper return to claim head of household status if she did.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I agree that the calendar is a good idea, but when the IRS audits for head of household they usually ask for outside source information to confirm with whom the children primarily lives. They look for things like whose address is on file with the doctor, school, daycare etc.. They also generally require proof that the child is your child (they even do that to intact families sometimes). They also cross check the welfare records to see if either parent is receiving benefits for the children.

While the IRS may look at those things, none of them tells you how many days the kid stayed with each parent. The court may specify a parent with primary custody of the child, but as you know that determination is meaningless for tax purposes since the definition of custodial parent does not depend in the least on the court's determination of who is the custodial parent. Looking for things like whose address is on file with various providers might help nudge things one way or the other in the absence of anything that shows the exact nights the kid stayed with each parent or help resolve a conflict if the two parents are presenting significantly different evidence on the issue. But again, they don't directly tell you when the kid was with each parent. Moreover, those records arise naturally in doing things with your kid, like going to the doctor or whatever. You'll have access to that info should you need it but you don't need to know about having them ahead of time. But the calendar is important and is something that a parent may not think to do unless advised that it may be important to the tax benefits the parent can claim. I have had cases in which that calendar made the crucial difference in winning the issue. I'm not disagreeing with you that the other information may be requested by the IRS or maybe be useful to provide on your own in an audit. My key point here for the OP though is that one of the critical things he should have is that record of exactly which nights the kid spent with him since in the end that is what the test really focuses upon.

 

[mandelbrot007]

I have a google calendar set up two years ago into the future until our child is emancipated! That calendar should at least be able to show half the number of days in a year. The only thing is I did not update the calendar whenever either she or I got extra time.

 

[Zigner]

I have a google calendar set up two years ago into the future until our child is emancipated! That calendar should at least be able to show half the number of days in a year. The only thing is I did not update the calendar whenever either she or I got extra time.

That means that your calendar is useless for what you need it for now.
You need a good old-fashioned wall calendar that you mark each day your kid is with you at that time (or close to it). Filling out a calendar for last year is much less helpful than filling out a calendar the morning after your child leaves for her mother's.

 

[mandelbrot007]

I agree that the calendar is a good idea, but when the IRS audits for head of household they usually ask for outside source information to confirm with whom the children primarily lives. They look for things like whose address is on file with the doctor, school, daycare etc.. They also generally require proof that the child is your child (they even do that to intact families sometimes). They also cross check the welfare records to see if either parent is receiving benefits for the children.

It is also possible that mom has already filed a return using the child as a head of household qualifier (even though she should not have done so) which means the OP would have to file a paper return to claim head of household status if she did.

The child primarily lives with both parents. Our order just says Mom and dad both have joint physical and legal with 50/50 timeshare. There is no designation of the primary parent. We both are on school address and the correspondences are mailed to both and same with doctors. Why would IRS expect or want one to show that he or she is primary adding more fuel to the high conflict custody situation?

As far as her filing status, she is remarried and has another kid from remarriage. So not sure what she filed but I think she would have filed it jointly with her husband as it's more beneficial. However, she reminded me to not take the deduction on our child as it's her turn.

I think I enough have to file HoH this year (for 2019)? So I will make sure, my calendar is up-to-date going forward

 

[Zigner]

The child primarily lives with both parents. Our order just says Mom and dad both have joint physical and legal with 50/50 timeshare. There is no designation of the primary parent. We both are on school address and the correspondences are mailed to both and same with doctors. Why would IRS expect or want one to show that he or she is primary adding more fuel to the high conflict custody situation?

The IRS doesn't care who is considered the "primary custodian" (or whatever your state calls it). They care who the child lives with more in a year.

 

[mandelbrot007]

That means that your calendar is useless for what you need it for now.
You need a good old-fashioned wall calendar that you mark each day your kid is with you at that time (or close to it). Filling out a calendar for last year is much less helpful than filling out a calendar the morning after your child leaves for her mother's.

I didn't say that I went and created a calendar for last year now. I already had created a calendar 2 years ago for all the years up to 2030. Everything is digital nowadays, so why it isn't acceptable for IRS?

 

[mandelbrot007]

The IRS doesn't care who is considered the "primary custodian" (or whatever your state calls it). They care who the child lives with more in a year.

I think that I will be able to prove easily for year 2019 with the email showing that I got a big block of additional during summer plus my regular schedule which adds up to 183 days and combined giving me more than half the year time

 

[Zigner]

I didn't say that I went and created a calendar for last year now. I already had created a calendar 2 years ago for all the years up to 2030. Everything is digital nowadays, so why it isn't acceptable for IRS?

The only thing is I did not update the calendar whenever either she or I got extra time.

You didn't keep track of the extras days as they happened.

 

[Zigner]

I think that I will be able to prove easily for year 2019 with the email showing that I got a big block of additional during summer plus my regular schedule which adds up to 183 days and combined giving me more than half the year time

There ya go then.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I didn't say that I went and created a calendar for last year now. I already had created a calendar 2 years ago for all the years up to 2030. Everything is digital nowadays, so why it isn't acceptable for IRS?

Because it is what you planned and not necessarily what happened.