Question

Can I claim my child as a dependent for the EIC and his father still get the childcare credit?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 6, 2019
2 replies
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TurboTax Deluxe Online

Employee

No. If you are the custodial parent then the non-custodial parent cannot get any type of credit or deduction for the child unless you relinquish your claim for the child's exemption to the other parent with a signed Form 8332. And even then the other parent cannot get the childcare credit.

Hal_Al

Employee

No.

There is a special rule in the case of divorced & separated (including never married) parents. When the non-custodial parent is claiming the child as a dependent/exemption/child tax credit; the custodial parent is still allowed to claim the same child for Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status, and day care credit. This "splitting of the child" is not available to parents who lived together at any time during the last 6 months of the year; then only one of you can claim the child for any tax reasons. The tax benefits may not be split in any other manner.

Note in particular that the non-custodial parent can never claim the Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status or the day care credit, based on that child, even when the custodial parent has released the exemption to him.

If you and the other parent live together, only one of you can claim the child for any tax benefit. The TurboTax interview is confusing (it's designed for divorced parents). The second parent should not enter the child, at all.

Hal_Al

Employee

If you and the other parent live together, either one of you (but not both) may claim the child. You may decide between you which one will claim the child. Only if you can’t agree, do the IRS tie breaker rules apply, to see who has first choice. It may be worthwhile to prepare trial returns, both ways, to see which way the family comes out best. This tool may be useful: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1">https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1</a>.