Question

Dependent and Earned Income Credit

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 30, 2020
2 replies
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I have shared custody of my son and this year was his fathers year to claim him as a dependent. I filed my taxes through TurboTax and did not claim my son as a dependent but I did apply for the Earned Income Credit and received it. I am now being told that I was not allowed to file HOH and received the EIC because it was his year to claim our son. I am single but I do pay rent and expenses so I qualified to file HOH. He lives at home with his parents yet is telling me he is also filing HOH. Our court order makes no mention of who can receive EIC only that the other parent gets to claim the exemption for dependent. This is the first year I have filed my taxes and I am very confused. Can someone give me advice? I have filed and received my return and now I am afraid I made a mistake.

ColeenD3

The custodial parent receives the Head of Household status, the EIC and the child care credit. The custodial parent can release the claim of exemption to the non-custodial parent but all that entitles them to is the Child Tax Credit. He would have had to say that the child lived with him in order to get these on his return. 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.

Custodial parent

@marweb95

Hal_Al

Employee

First, for tax purposes, there is no such thing as joint custody, regardless of what your legal agreement says. The requirement, to be custodial parent, is that the child live with you MORE than 50% of the time. One of you has to be the custodial parent and the other the non-custodial parent. The IRS goes by physical custody, not legal custody.

Assuming you are the custodial parent, the father is not allowed to file HOH and received the EIC just because it was his year to claim our son (many think that; they're just plain wrong). Send him this link, as proof: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17#en_US_2017_publink1000170897

Scroll down to "Children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart)"

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 dependency to him.

So, it's good idea to let the other parent know that you will be claiming those items, as many first time divorced parents are not aware of this rule and may try to claim those items, which will cause the IRS to send out letters.