Who claims children on tax statement???

[nickitoo]

What is the name of your state?
Wisconsin
I am a single mother, never married, over 6 months ago the father of my children left to live in CA. We had been seperated before and arranged privately to claim one child each (We have two children together.) every year on our tax statements. (I claimed my oldest and he claimed my youngest.)
Now that he is not in my childrens life besides the occasional phonecall I just assumed I would be claiming both our children on my tax statement. There is no court order besides the paternity and child support that is set and he sends child support when he chooses and is currently 3 months behind.
Am I wrong about claiming both our children on my tax return? Is this not fair of me? He claims that because he pays child support (and really...he is not paying what is set up to be paid) he should be able to claim one of our children...is this the way it is done? Or should there be a decision made in court about how this is set up?

 

[ceara19]

What is the name of your state?
Wisconsin
I am a single mother, never married, over 6 months ago the father of my children left to live in CA. We had been seperated before and arranged privately to claim one child each (We have two children together.) every year on our tax statements. (I claimed my oldest and he claimed my youngest.)
Now that he is not in my childrens life besides the occasional phonecall I just assumed I would be claiming both our children on my tax statement. There is no court order besides the paternity and child support that is set and he sends child support when he chooses and is currently 3 months behind.
Am I wrong about claiming both our children on my tax return? Is this not fair of me? He claims that because he pays child support (and really...he is not paying what is set up to be paid) he should be able to claim one of our children...is this the way it is done? Or should there be a decision made in court about how this is set up?

Even if he is paying you have the right to claim BOTH children. It is based on which parent the child lives with for the majority of the year. A court order or your permission is necessary for him to claim them.

 

[Ptrcmcc6]

The person the children are living with is the one who claims the children on their tax forms. I let the father of my children claim one of our children one year because he was living with me at the time. I will never do that again!! He received an EIC for the child and I didn't see a penny of it. Oh wait**************I'm lying!! He bought me a microwave with the extra $1,300.00 or so $$'s he received. I wound up throwing him out of the house because he was always drunk and in the bars with the extra money he had. Fortunately, he has sobered up and we have a pretty good relationship now but, I never let him claim any of our children again.

Child support has no bearing on who gets to claim them. If they live with you, you have every right to claim both of them.

 

[JETX]

Neither of the previous posts are completely correct.

First, your 'agreement' as to who will declare the child deduction is a violation of federal tax law. There is far more to who can, and who CANNOT, declare a deduction for a 'qualified child'.

I suggest you read the information at the following IRS tax publication (Pub 501) as to who is a 'qualified child' and who can claim him/her:
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#d0e3613