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bononos

Senior Member
It's that time of year again!
Of course, my ex calls on Friday stating he'll be claiming our child.
What a joke.
He isn't head of household.
He doesn't contribute to the over $300 in childcare per month that I pay entirely out-of-pocket.
Then to top it all off, I call on my EPPICard to see if I've gotten anything yet, we'll, since he's now collecting unemployment and not claiming his under-the-table earnings, I got $32.00 total for this month.
What another joke.
The support order was not reduced and he still owes about $2500 on arrears that he is supposed to pay $100 a month towards.
This idiot actually wants to claim our son and he is providing about 5% of financial support.
Just thought I'd share the hell that is my life!
I think I'm close to either hiring a PI or having a friend tail him and video him working. This is getting ridiculous.
 


MrsK

Senior Member
bononos said:
It's that time of year again!
Of course, my ex calls on Friday stating he'll be claiming our child.
What a joke.
He isn't head of household.
He doesn't contribute to the over $300 in childcare per month that I pay entirely out-of-pocket.
Then to top it all off, I call on my EPPICard to see if I've gotten anything yet, we'll, since he's now collecting unemployment and not claiming his under-the-table earnings, I got $32.00 total for this month.
What another joke.
The support order was not reduced and he still owes about $2500 on arrears that he is supposed to pay $100 a month towards.
This idiot actually wants to claim our son and he is providing about 5% of financial support.
Just thought I'd share the hell that is my life!
I think I'm close to either hiring a PI or having a friend tail him and video him working. This is getting ridiculous.

Was he awarded the right to claim the child or is he just trying to pull some stupid stunt?
 

bononos

Senior Member
MrsK said:
Was he awarded the right to claim the child or is he just trying to pull some stupid stunt?
Our current order does not address that at all.
We do have joint custody so he assumes he should be allowed to claim every other year.
I have reviewed the guidelines of the IRS and know I am the one to claim him.
It's his typical stupid stunt.
 

MrsK

Senior Member
bononos said:
Our current order does not address that at all.
We do have joint custody so he assumes he should be allowed to claim every other year.
I have reviewed the guidelines of the IRS and know I am the one to claim him.
It's his typical stupid stunt.

Should be interesting when the IRS comes a-knocking on one of ya'lls door. Sounds like he'll be dealing with the fun of paying back the refund & penalties if he filed first.

Did you tell him that would happen?

Did you file before him?
 

bononos

Senior Member
MrsK said:
Should be interesting when the IRS comes a-knocking on one of ya'lls door. Sounds like he'll be dealing with the fun of paying back the refund & penalties if he filed first.

Did you tell him that would happen?

Did you file before him?

Well, the SOB got his filed first.
I did mine on turbotax.com and got a rejected notice due to sons SS# being used on the 1040 and EIC.
So, I have to mail mine in, of course I attached a letter of explaination and a copy of the custody and support orders.
My taxes have EIC, 1040-Head of Household, Additional Child Tax Credit, and Dependant Care Expenses.
Let's see, just between the child care and health insurance - I have $5658.00 in "on paper" bills per year. I don't think his $40 a month ($480/year)...That's 8.5% towards just these 2 bills quite covers over 1/2 the financial support.

So, I know this will take forever, but what will happen, besides a letter being sent to him?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
bononos said:
Well, the SOB got his filed first.
I did mine on turbotax.com and got a rejected notice due to sons SS# being used on the 1040 and EIC.
So, I have to mail mine in, of course I attached a letter of explaination and a copy of the custody and support orders.
My taxes have EIC, 1040-Head of Household, Additional Child Tax Credit, and Dependant Care Expenses.
Let's see, just between the child care and health insurance - I have $5658.00 in "on paper" bills per year. I don't think his $40 a month ($480/year)...That's 8.5% towards just these 2 bills quite covers over 1/2 the financial support.

So, I know this will take forever, but what will happen, besides a letter being sent to him?

What will happen is that you will get your refund in 4-6 weeks. You don't need to send any explanation or evidence with your return. In fact, its probably less confusing if you don't.

Then sometime down the road (maybe as much as a year later) you will both get letters in the mail stating that two people have claimed the child. They will ask you to amend your return if you were not the one who was not supposed to claim the child. They will give you 90 days to do that. At that point you can either ignore the letter or send in your evidence.

After the 90 days are over the IRS will investigate and require evidence from both parties. At that point your ex will get stuck with a bill to repay the excess refund plus penalities and interest.
 

MrsK

Senior Member
Did you explain to your ex what would happen if he claimed the child?

H&R Block told me last yr (my ex filed before me, it was not his year. It was an honest mistake- our first seperated yr & he thought it was his yr & he gave me the money so I never pursued it...since I had the money and all) that when my return was rejected I could send in my return with the court order showing it was not his year and they would find him quickly & it would be his problem.

So I actually think its a good thing that you sent in the evidence, they may go after him more quickly, and not hold you up in any way.

Of course, it could take awhile, like LdiJ said, I never actually had to go through it since my ex paid up, but he'll get his.

And hopefully he wont be stupid enough to do it next year, unless he LOVES repaying money to the IRS.

Any idea on how much he got back?
 

bononos

Senior Member
LdiJ said:
What will happen is that you will get your refund in 4-6 weeks. You don't need to send any explanation or evidence with your return. In fact, its probably less confusing if you don't.

Then sometime down the road (maybe as much as a year later) you will both get letters in the mail stating that two people have claimed the child. They will ask you to amend your return if you were not the one who was not supposed to claim the child. They will give you 90 days to do that. At that point you can either ignore the letter or send in your evidence.

After the 90 days are over the IRS will investigate and require evidence from both parties. At that point your ex will get stuck with a bill to repay the excess refund plus penalities and interest.
Thank you sooooo much. That was definately helpful.
Wow! Kind of crazy they actually send both people their returns.
Mine, unfortunately will go directly to student loans, I got in default awhile back and can't seem to get caught up.
So, at least it's not like I have big plans for my return.
 

bononos

Senior Member
MrsK said:
Did you explain to your ex what would happen if he claimed the child?

I ceratinly did, but he just argues back thinking he is right.

H&R Block told me last yr (my ex filed before me, it was not his year. It was an honest mistake- our first seperated yr & he thought it was his yr & he gave me the money so I never pursued it...since I had the money and all) that when my return was rejected I could send in my return with the court order showing it was not his year and they would find him quickly & it would be his problem.

I already mailed it with a letter and my court orders, so maybe it will help or like LdiJ said, it may complicate it. I do hope it becomes HIS problem just so I don't have to deal with th aggrevation.

So I actually think its a good thing that you sent in the evidence, they may go after him more quickly, and not hold you up in any way.

Of course, it could take awhile, like LdiJ said, I never actually had to go through it since my ex paid up, but he'll get his.

And hopefully he wont be stupid enough to do it next year, unless he LOVES repaying money to the IRS.

Any idea on how much he got back?

He worked from Jan to around Sept. at $16.00/hr., got fired, hasn't "claimed" income since. He does drywall and doesn't claim the income. He just got unemployment too.
So, he probably claimed around $20,000 last year.
He was, up until this month, paying the $100 towards the arrears monthly (ordered), so they won't take his check to pay to the arrears until he's 3 months behind.

My refund is a bit over $2000, that's a big chunk off my $16,000 owed on my student loans.
 

rzack

Member
I wonder how you guys got refund. We don't have children, my husband has one, but live with his mother, we never claim him. Last year we have to pay over $2000 to Fed and $650 to State. This give me headache. We both are working and just wonder how can we ended owing them. Do we put wrong code in our tax deduction? Or did the person who fill in our form do it wrongly? We get assistance from agency to fill it in. This year, we did ourself and get some refund, but not much. Should both of us make extra deduction from our pay? Everyone we ask got refund, but not us. Grrrr.
 

CarrieT

Member
LdiJ said:
What will happen is that you will get your refund in 4-6 weeks. You don't need to send any explanation or evidence with your return. In fact, its probably less confusing if you don't.

Then sometime down the road (maybe as much as a year later) you will both get letters in the mail stating that two people have claimed the child. They will ask you to amend your return if you were not the one who was not supposed to claim the child. They will give you 90 days to do that. At that point you can either ignore the letter or send in your evidence.

After the 90 days are over the IRS will investigate and require evidence from both parties. At that point your ex will get stuck with a bill to repay the excess refund plus penalities and interest.

My ex did the same thing about 3 years ago. He was not even paying the child support and I didnt know he had claimed the children. When I submitted my taxes, I received a letter back from the IRS stating that someone else had already claimed them, and that if this was an error I needed to send in 'proof' that they lived with me. They had enclosed a sheet with about 10 different pieces of 'evidence' I needed to provide them with before they would release my tax refund to me. I had filed in March and it was October by the time I actually received my refund. I had to send the packet of 'proof' in to them 3 different times (I sent them overnight RRR each time).

After I received my refund, I received a nice letter letting me know that the person who claimed them had better not do this another 2 times, because on the fourth time he would be charged with something (I cannot remember what, however it carried jail time) and heavy fines. Basically he was given a slap on the wrist and the promise of 2 more slaps before he was 'shot'.

I found the IRS extremely difficult and incompetent to work with on this issue. I hope that your situation is easier to resolve!

Carrie
 

ceara19

Senior Member
CarrieT said:
My ex did the same thing about 3 years ago. He was not even paying the child support and I didnt know he had claimed the children. When I submitted my taxes, I received a letter back from the IRS stating that someone else had already claimed them, and that if this was an error I needed to send in 'proof' that they lived with me. They had enclosed a sheet with about 10 different pieces of 'evidence' I needed to provide them with before they would release my tax refund to me. I had filed in March and it was October by the time I actually received my refund. I had to send the packet of 'proof' in to them 3 different times (I sent them overnight RRR each time).

After I received my refund, I received a nice letter letting me know that the person who claimed them had better not do this another 2 times, because on the fourth time he would be charged with something (I cannot remember what, however it carried jail time) and heavy fines. Basically he was given a slap on the wrist and the promise of 2 more slaps before he was 'shot'.

I found the IRS extremely difficult and incompetent to work with on this issue. I hope that your situation is easier to resolve!

Carrie

I can't believe you have to go through all of that. My ex claims the kids on his taxes every year. Every year we both get a letter that says one or more of the dependents on your return has been claimed by another party. If this was an error on your part please submit an ammended return within 90 day or you may be subject to penalties and fines. I never hear another word from them until tax time comes around again. What's funny is the fact that the huge refund my ex gets because he claimed the kids come directly to me because of the cs arrears. The only hassle is having to send in a paper return because it's rejected when I try to e-file. I guess I could be nice and actually file my taxes first instead of waiting until April. Then his would be rejected and he might rethink keeping the kids on there. But then again, if I did, I'd never see any CS.
 

bononos

Senior Member
Thanks for the replies all!

Carrie - do you remember the proof they requested?

Like I mentioned, I did send in the court orders (cs and custody) plus, my ex didn't include the child care in his return because he does not pay a cent to it.

There is good news...I contacted the student loan collections, since I have a percent of my pay attached that goes to repay my loans and have for over a year, they will not be taking my refund this year...wow, an unexpected $2000!

I can't believe he filed before me, I only received my W-2 on the last date required so obviously I filed within the first week I could and he still beat me.

I hope that with what I sent in and the obvious difference in our returns that shows who supports our son financially, maybe I won't have a tough time proving my right to claim.
 

CarrieT

Member
bononos said:
Thanks for the replies all!

Carrie - do you remember the proof they requested?

Like I mentioned, I did send in the court orders (cs and custody) plus, my ex didn't include the child care in his return because he does not pay a cent to it.

There is good news...I contacted the student loan collections, since I have a percent of my pay attached that goes to repay my loans and have for over a year, they will not be taking my refund this year...wow, an unexpected $2000!

I can't believe he filed before me, I only received my W-2 on the last date required so obviously I filed within the first week I could and he still beat me.

I hope that with what I sent in and the obvious difference in our returns that shows who supports our son financially, maybe I won't have a tough time proving my right to claim.

I was looking through my Divorce File to see if I could find the actual paper I was sent from the IRS, but I think its in my Tax box in storage.

Off the top of my head, I recall sending copies of my Divorce packet - the MSA for child support and custody (Im sole legal and physical)as visitation isnt an issue because he has none, and then the childrens school records (I had the school write on letterhead a note stating that address of record is mine and that children were enrolled the entire 9 month school year with no absences. I photocopied the boarding passes used for the childrens visit to my parents for the 2 weeks in the summer and the completion certificates of their month at camp.

I also sent copies of my rental lease showing occupants being myself and the children and their medical cards and social security cards. I cant remember what else I sent. It was a huge packet though consisting of about 15 or 20 pages of the 'proof' they requested. If I get a chance to go to the storage unit this next week, Ill try and pull out the file and then I will post, if that helps.

Carrie
 

SDAVIS

Junior Member
I don't think so!

Does your court order state who can claim him? You can't just up and say I am going to claim our child this? Who is the custodial parent?

Generally, in order for someone to claim a child as a dependent, he or she must provide at least 50% of the child’s support during the tax year. For couples who are still married and living together, claiming kids as dependents is usually a slam-dunk.

Things get complicated, however, when parents divorce or separate. Now, only one of you can claim the dependent exemption. (The IRS will come down hard if both of you try to claim it; they cross-reference dependents' Social Security numbers to make sure taxpayers aren’t doing this.)


Who is the custodial parent?

The custodial parent signs a declaration (using IRS Form 8332) relinquishing his or her right to claim the dependent exemption, and the noncustodial parent attaches this declaration to his or her tax return. Using this form, the custodial parent can relinquish the exemption for one year, a number of years, or forever, depending on what the parties agree to.
If you relinquish the exemption, you are also relinquishing eligibility for the child tax credit. The IRS is very picky about Form 8332, and can (and often does) disallow the dependent exemption for the noncustodial parent if this form isn’t signed and attached to the tax return, even if the divorce decree or separation agreement allocates the exemption to the noncustodial parent. That means it’s very important for the noncustodial parent to attach a copy of this declaration to his or her return in every tax year in which he or she claims the exemption.

If the custodial parent refuses to sign Form 8332, the noncustodial parent can attach part of the divorce decree or separation agreement (the cover page, the page that discusses the exemption and the signature page) to his or her tax return to prove that he or she is entitled to the exemption. However, the IRS will accept this only if the decree or agreement doesn’t require that certain conditions be met before the noncustodial parent can claim the exemption. If there are conditions, the noncustodial parent must use Form 8332 or not get the exemption.
 

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