What filing status is appropriate.

[sudofdisk]

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

Scenario:

Jack and Jill are married and have two children. Jill also has children from a previous marriage. Up to this point Jill's ex has always claimed Head of Household and Jill filed joint with Jack.

Jack and Jill are phyisically seperated and have been living in seperate residences since 2-1-07. They share 50/50 physical custody of the two children. They have not filed any divorce/separation paperwork yet. Jack and Jill maintain a very civil relationship thus far and want to be on the same page when they file their taxes.

Jack made a decent wage (too much for EEC) and Jill did not. Jack paid Alimony and Child Support all year long in anticipation of the actual divorce.


A) Even though there is no legal separation paperwork, can Jack claim the Alimony so long as Jill does on her forms as well?

B) Is it possible for Jack and Jill to both claim HoH if they claim one child each? Jills ex would probably claim HoH as well.

 

[LdiJ]

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

Scenario:

Jack and Jill are married and have two children. Jill also has children from a previous marriage. Up to this point Jill's ex has always claimed Head of Household and Jill filed joint with Jack.

Jill's ex may not have been filing head of household legally unless the child lived with him more than six months of the year.

Jack and Jill are phyisically seperated and have been living in seperate residences since 2-1-07. They share 50/50 physical custody of the two children. They have not filed any divorce/separation paperwork yet. Jack and Jill maintain a very civil relationship thus far and want to be on the same page when they file their taxes.

Jack made a decent wage (too much for EEC) and Jill did not. Jack paid Alimony and Child Support all year long in anticipation of the actual divorce.


A) Even though there is no legal separation paperwork, can Jack claim the Alimony so long as Jill does on her forms as well?

No, in order to be deductible alimony must be court ordered.

B) Is it possible for Jack and Jill to both claim HoH if they claim one child each? Jills ex would probably claim HoH as well.

[/quote]

For this year only, yes, its possible that both Jack and Jill can claim head of household, but not for the same child.

Both of them lived with the children more than six months of the year (by overnights) because they did not separate until February. Therefore they each spent more than six months of the year with the children. In future years however, that will not be possible, even with a 50/50 schedule. Only one of them will have more than 6 months of overnights with the children because there are an odd number of days in the year, and because the way that the weeks and the holidays fall one of them is likely to have more time with the children than the other in any given calendar year anyway.

That means that Jill would NOT be eligible for EIC in any year that she did not have the children more than 1/2 of the overnights in the year.