Separated, divorce wil take a while, when tax time...?

Question

Comes around, how should I file? I have full custody of our 4 yr old daughter, he pays child support and has very limited supervised visitation. Our divorce will take a while, so I don't think it will be final by jan. or feb.
Shall I file as married filling sep, and claim my daughter? Or as head of household? Or is there a special cat. for separated people.
By the way, ex has agreed that I should claim her
Please help, I have no idea

I live in TX, where legal sep. does not exist, but we have not lived in the same house since May...

Answer 1

As long as you have lived apart since June 30, 2007, you may file as Head of Household, since you are paying more than half the cost of providing a home for your daughter.

You can also claim your daughter as a dependent since she lives with you more than half of the year. Your ex does NOT have to "agree" to this -- you get the exemption since you have custody, that's the law.

Depending upon your income you may also be eligible for the Earned Income Credit. You may also be able to claim the Child Tax Credit, again depending upon your income and total tax liability.

Answer 2

If you separated before July 1, 2007, and didn't live together at all after June 30, not even one night, or if you have a court-defined legal separation, you can file as head of household. Otherwise your choices are married filing separately, or finding some way to agree on filing a joint return.

Answer 3

Are you legally separated? That is the same as unmarried as far as your taxes are concerned. In this case, you would file as single or head of household. Head of Household requires that you pay for over half the costs of maintaining the home for your child for at least six months of the year.

If you are not legally separated, then if you have not lived with your spouse for the last six months of the year, and you pay over half the costs of maintaining the home for your child for at least six months of the year, then you can still file as Head of Household.

If neither of the above situations applies to you, then you will have to file a joint return with your spouse, or file married filing separately. Try to avoid filing MFS because that filing status has the fewest tax benefits.

Answer 4

You should figure taxes both ways, you filing married filing separately and claim your daughter, but also fill them out as married couple. You might get more money by splitting 50/50 OR on your own. Only doing it both ways will tell you which you need to file.

A good tax guy would do it for you.

Answer 5

You should file head of houshold, claiming your child and he should file as single.

Or if you get along well enough, it might be better for you to file a joint return.

Answer 6

Do you have a job that provides more than 1/2 her support ?

But not many of us work for the IRS , contact them and get real answers . . .

http://www.irs.gov/

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Answer 7

It sounds like a difficult divorce.

Please read the following before considering, which filing status to use for your tax return.

If you live in a community state some or all income earned by one spouse may be community income. As a general rule, that means the tax rules will treat this income as if each spouse earned half of it.

If you and your spouse file separate returns, each of you has to report half of the community income. In addition, you would report half of the income produced by any property that's treated as community property (for example, savings bonds that are purchased with community income). You would also report the entire amount of any income you have that's treated as your separate income under the laws of your state.

If you live in a community property state you'll be subject to somewhat different rules for spousal liability (and relief from spousal liability).

Joint Tax Returns
If you file jointly with your spouse, you'll generally obtain relief from spousal liability under the same rules that apply to taxpayers in common law states (states that do not have community property laws). The new law provides:

"Any determination under this section shall be made without regard to community property laws."

This means that any item that would otherwise be attributable to your spouse won't be split between you because it happens to relate to community income. However, as we understand this provision, it doesn't prevent you from being taxable on your half of the income produced by community property.

Example: Your spouse fails to report some of the income from your spouse's business. In addition, your return doesn't include the income from mutual fund shares your spouse bought with community income. Under the rules providing relief from spousal liability, you don't have to treat half of the business income as your own. But half of the income from the mutual fund is yours, because the income was produced by property you own jointly with your spouse.

Apart from splitting income that's produced by property you own jointly with your spouse by virtue of the community property laws, you should apply the rules described in other pages of this guide to relief from spousal liability as if you lived in a common law state, not a community property state.

Liability on Separate Returns
Normally you aren't liable for tax relating to your spouse's income if you file separate returns (assuming there's no fraudulent transfer of assets from your spouse to you). But if you live in a community property state, you're required to report half of the community income earned by your spouse on your return. If the IRS determines that the community income earned by your spouse was greater than you thought it was, you can be liable for tax on your share of that income even though you filed a separate return.

The tax law provides relief from liability for tax on community income on separate returns under rules similar to the Innocent Spouse Rule. The tax law also provides that the IRS can impose tax solely on one spouse if that spouse treats community income as his or her own and fails to notify the other spouse of the amount and nature of the income before the due date of the return for that year. The 1998 tax law added a new provision under which the IRS can grant relief where it would be inequitable to collect the tax even though the taxpayer doesn't qualify for relief under the general rule.

We don't expect the IRS to use this rule in every instance where the taxpayer feels that the law is unfair. Yet there are likely to be situations where the facts are particularly appealing and the IRS actually wants to provide relief. Before the 1998 tax law, the IRS had little choice but to enforce the law as it was written. Now the IRS can exercise discretion in appropriate cases.

If you live in a common property state, I would say Married Filing Separately, the only other option if Married Filing Jointly for Federal Tax purposes.

If you live in a community property state you should try to file Married Filing Jointly.

Head of Household Filing Status you must be considered unmarried for tax purposes. This is a grey area because your spouse must not have lived with you for the last 6 months of the year and some individuals who are going through a divorce use Head of Household Filing Status and it gets rejected by the IRS and the individual ends up owing money.

You have a qualifying child, which means your child is under 18 years of age.

You must have paid for over 50% of your household and over 50% for support of your child.

The only credit you will be eligible for under Married Filing Separately is the Child Tax Credit, you will be able to claim your daughter for a dependency exemption.

You should get a form from the attorney with a signed statement with your ex-husbands signature stating your ability to claim your daughter for dependency exemption. What is said and what is done are two different things, as a tax professional, I have had to deal with this problem and it can create a bit of a mess.

Maybe you and your ex-husband to be will be able to switch years, one year you claim your daughter for a dependency exemption and the next year your ex-husband claims your daughter for dependency exemption.

You must have earned income, which means you have income earned from working. Child support is not taxable income on the Federal Return and your ex-husband is not allowed to use the child support to reduce taxable income, however child support is included in the worksheet for determing support of your child.

Your best bet is to sit down with a tax professional in your state. Bring in any questions prior to your meeting and last year's tax return.