Who can claim a child on Tax Return?

[seednaymus]

Late June 2007-My daughter moved out of her residense she shared w/ her boyfriend, taking her child with her. She never held a job. Her boyfriend/ the father of her child held jobs here & there. They rec'd State assistance & food stamps, & a lot of help from family. The father of her child has never paid any child support, or bought anything for his child since June. .Who can claim their child on taxes for 2007? My daughter has not filed her taxes yet, & found out recently that her x boyfriend has claimed their child! What recourse does she have?? Please Help!! ..Thanks!Custody has not been astablished. The child has lived with the mother the full 12 months, father for 6 months. Mother will file taxes with current boyfriend, who she's lived with for 4 months. I know! I know! not good!...but grammy has no say!

 

[selena c]

I'm a single mom, I don't work, but I claim the kids on my income taxes. If I were here I would call the revenue agency and ask about it. If he never even paid child support, I doubt they will let him claim the child.is it split care half/ half or does he just see his child every other weekend? or not at all? I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

 

[Sekkennight]

It primarily depends on who the child lives with, subject to other minutiae. The dependent cannot be split in a given tax year, but it can be alternated, subject to divorce/custody documentation.

 

[SEEKER]

If she never held a job then it's a moot point that the b/f claimed the child since she has no need to file herself.If she is filing then she should simply claim the child on her return. She'll probably have to file a paper return by mail. If they both claimed the child, the IRS will investigate the matter and award the exemption according to the law. That's usually to the cusdodial parent, your daughter in this case. The ex b/f would get a bill for any taxes that he owes due to the disallowance of the exemption claim for him.

 

[SelenaR]

she has to send a paper return claiming her child. The irs will contact her regarding her child alreadyy being claimed, she'll have to send a letter and prove that she is entitled to claim the child. Any of them have the right to claim the child. However, since the child lived with him for at least 6 months of the year and she didn't work and he made more money then she did they will probably allow him to claim her. Has she taken him to court forchild support? If he owes child support he will not get the refund it will go straight to the child. It doesn't hurt to try. Good luck!

 

[Seece]

If the child lived in the home with the father and mother and the father was working here and there...then yes he can claim her. The child would have had to reside at his address for 7 months out of the year for them to qualify as a dependent for him. How will she be claiming taxes if she didn't work? She can't. If they were living together then there wasn't a need for him to pay child support. I went through this...but there was a BIG difference in my case and your daughters. My child has NEVER lived with his father and his father has nothing to do with him, but yet somehow got ahold of my son's SS# and filed him as a dependent on his taxes...I had to send mine in the old fashioned way and prove that my child lived with me and not him, which was easy to do...and I got my taxes..and he is in trouble with the IRS now...but he just doesn't know it yet..guess it takes a while for them to catch up with him..he will have to pay back the earned income credit and child tax plus fines out the wazoo! So good luck with her taxes...I don't think she can do anything at this time. Now next year if she has taxes to claim and the child lived solely with her as the custodial parent..then she can do something if he claims the kid.

 

[Selena Gomez Official]

Since the child lives with your daughter, her dad isn't allowed to claim her unless he has a valid court order saying he can, or unless he has written permission from your daughter. This would be true even if he was paying child support.You don't say when she moved out though. If they lived together all of 2007, then he has the right to claim the child. If the child lived with her more of 2007 than with him, then she has the right.If they didn't live together all year, she should go ahead and file, and claim the child. She and the father will each receive a letter from the IRS telling then that two people claimed the same person, and saying that whoever didn't have the right to the claim needs to file an amended return dropping the claim - then if nobody does, they'll investigate and decide who gets the exemption. The other person will have to pay back whatever he got by making the claim he wasn't entitled to, with interest and possible penalties.

 

[Seece]

I think that the mom is the one who can and should claim the child. As far as him not paying child support if he does claim the child he will get the credits ut guess what?...the IRS will keep his money for not paying his child support...happened to a friend of mines.

 

[seesunsuf]

Let's see. How is she going to file with no income? Her only legal option is to file a "zero" return with a note to establish that she has the claim to the child.She can't let the new boyfriend claim either her or the kid since they didn't live there all year.