Question about child support Please help?

Question

I have a court child support paper that states "A dependency exemption shall be assigned to XXXX pursuant to the Idaho Child Support Guidelines. The child support obligation as stated above has been adjusted to provide for the pro rata payment of teh value of the exemption" What exactly does that mean? Do I get to claim my child on my taxes or does XXX get to claim him? If XXX gets to claim him even though XXX has only seen him one time in my child's life is there a way to change that so I get to claim my child on my taxes? Please help me understand. Thank you

Answer 1

if XXX is the non custodial parent and you XXXX are the custodial parent, it seems that You would be getting to claim the exemption for your child on your return.

It looks like they made an adjustment to the amount of child support the non custodial parent will make to make up for the fact that the non custodial parent will not be allowed tp claim the exemption for the child

Answer 2

In order to allow the noncustodial parent the dependency exemption, the document (which the IRS states is a divorce decree or separation agreement) must state all three of the following:

1. The noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent without regard to any condition, such as payment of support.

2. The custodial parent will not claim the child as a dependent for the year.

3. The years for which the noncustodial parent, rather than the custodial parent, can claim the child as a dependent.

Since the statement was contained in a child support paper, it could be argued that condition 1 is not met. Are there specific statements corresponding to points 2 and 3? You could claim the child and contest the enforceability of the document, if it does not contain all three of the above statements.

Even without the dependency exemption, if you are the custodial parent, you can still qualify for Head of Household, the Earned Income Credit, and credit for dependent care without the dependency exemption. However, you lose the deduction ($3,300 in 2006) for the child, plus the child tax credit.

So you have to decide if it is worth contesting that document.

Answer 3

The custodial parent -- the one that the child spends the most time with during the year -- will get the exemption. That court order does NOT meet the Federal guidelines required for the non-custodial parent to get the exemption without the custodial parent's consent.

Federal law has VERY SPECIFIC stipulations that MUST be reflected in the divorce or support decree for the non-custodial parent to receive the exemption. If the court decree does not meet those stipulations, the IRS is REQUIRED BY LAW to ignore the State court's order. Federal law trumps State law and State court orders on this issue.

All of that said, my gut tells me that that bit of legal mumbo-jumbo really means that the amount of the child support ordered was adjusted for the tax value of the exemption that YOU claim for the child.

Answer 4

Call the IRS and discuss this with them. Normally the person caring for the child and has the child living with them claims the child. A court order must specifically state that the payor can claim the child for tax purposes. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

The court order assigns the tax exemption to XXXX. The child support amount you are being paid each month takes this deduction into account, thus the payment is slightly higher than if the deduction belonged to you.

You need to seek a modification of the child support order to change the exemption to you.