accountants....can i file as head of household??

Question

i legally have joint custody of my 2 children. my ex used both for dependants on her taxes. if i have my kids 50% of the time can i file as HOH even though she claimed them. the tax form asks for a social security number of who lived with me...please help!!

Answer 1

You can claim head of household status for your children if pay more the 50% of the upkeep of your house. This true even under the Uniform Definition of a child rule that are currently in effect.

The custodial parent can release the exemption and the child tax credit to the non-custodial parent with out loosing the head of household filling status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses (Form 2441), and the Earned Income Credit.

You will need the SSN of your child to get any tax benefit for them. Also please beware, the non-custodial parent will often mistakenly file for "Head of Household" and the earned income credit, because of a misunderstanding in the tax law. You may end up needing to prove custody of your children if the IRS should audit. If the kids are school age you can show them papers from the school with your address. If they are not school age, your child's doctor will be able to supply the same.

Answer 2

If there's a court order or written agreement between the two of you on who can claim the kids, then the IRS would honor that. Otherwise, if one of you has them even one day a year longer than the other, then that person is considered by the IRS to be the custodial parent and has the right to claim the kids. If you have them EXACTLY the same amount of time, then the one with the higher AGI (adjusted gross income) is entitled to the exemption, and also entitled to claim head of household.

If you both claim them on your returns, then the IRS will apply the above rules to decide who gets to claim them.

Answer 3

If your ex-spouse has claimed the children as dependents, you cannot claim them or your return will be rejected.

If your ex-spouse used the children to qualify for Head of Household, then you cannot do that either.

It might be possible for you to put the children on as non-dependents and use them to establish the Head of Household filing status. You would have to have the children for more than 50% of the time and provide for over 50% of the costs of maintaining their home.

It would be good if you could work out an arrangement with your ex-spouse to alternate the dependency exemptions and head of household filing statuses.

Answer 4

there's no type to "chop up" the youngster in case you reside at the same time. (the form 8832 purely applies if the mother and dad are actually not dwelling at the same time.) together as the youngster is a qualifying toddler for the two mom and dad, the youngster can purely be claimed by using one in all them. That confirm can declare the exemption, any toddler care expenses they paid, the youngster tax credit, EIC, and head of kinfolk (in the event that they are in a position to show they paid greater suitable than 50% of the expenses). If the mother and dad won't have the ability to come to a kind who will declare the youngster, the tiebreaker the IRS will use is the confirm with the better AGI. The confirm who would not declare the youngster can not declare any of those advantages. they'll would desire to report as single and declare purely their own exemption. despite in the event that they have very low earnings, they are not eligible for EIC (because of the fact they have a qualifying toddler that somebody else is claiming).