Contest it with a paper tax return the IRS will review him.

If there is a divorce decree that clearly states who gets the dependent exemption stick to the rules.

If not the IRS will favor the custodial parent in the tie breaker rules, that is you.

In 2005, the laws changed about who can and cannot claim a child as a dependent. As of 2005, the law states (in every state) that whom ever lives with the child for more than 50 percent of the year has the right to claim the child as a dependent. If you former spouse claimed your son as a dependent without you signed the form releases your tax right this year, then that probably means that he E-Filed. E-filing does NOT enforce the form. At this point, you will need to MAIL IN your tax forms and still put you son on them as a dependent. In a few months (sometimes even a year's time) the IRS with catch that two individuals were paid for this dependent. The IRS will audit both of you. Who ever can send in paperwork showing where the child resided for the year with be able to claim the child. The other party will be forced to pay back whatever they got for claiming the dependent. If the other party does not pay back the monies then the IRS will take it out of their taxes the next year and will also charge them a penalty and interest.

Regardless of whether you have a divorce order stating othewise, the IRS does not deal with "court orders". They only want to know WHERE THE CHILD RESIDED for more than half the year (because the change in the laws in 2005).

I hope this helped!

Thank you so much because he did claim him this year and he must have e-filed because we tried to claim my son and the tax lady said my ex already claimed him and that we couldn't. After reading your response I called my tax lady back up and told her to change everything back claiming my son because my son lives with us all year and has not seen my ex in 2 years. The man is behind again in child support and he just wants this money to get caught back up. We are going to take him back to court, because my son does not want anything to do with his father, so we are going to ask for him to give up his rights. Thank you again

You are welcome! I am so glad my answer helped you. Just remember to claim him regardless of whether you ex claimed him as well. Send in your paper forms and leave it all up to the IRS to audit him. At least you will still get your money in the mean time.

I hope everything works out for your son! Just remember that all this "tax stuff" should stay between you and your ex...don't involve your son in all of this! :)

I was reading up on this more and I found more information!

If your court order is from before 2005 then you cannot claim your son if it is your ex's year because his child support amount is calculated based on the assumption that he is claiming him half the time. However, if his child support amount was not calculated with the assumption that he was claiming him then you should claim your son. He either claims him half the time and pays more child support....or he does not claim him and pays less child support.

If your court order is after 2005 and the judge ordered that he gets to claim him then obviously you had a judge that was not familiar with federal law and you would need to hire an attorney to get that settled out.

On another note: If he IS supposed to claim your son because he is paying a higher child support amount and he has not paid his child support in months then you should contact you local child support enforcement office. They will yank the child support out of his tax return ( it is called a tax intercept). Then in the end you have the child support and he is claiming him half the time and so are you. In the end everyone is following court order. Just a thought!

I just spoke with two attorneys who completely and totally assured me that this is patently false. The IRS will, in fact, audit both parties, and in doing so, will ask for any copies of decrees. If there is a decree that states that one or the other party has dependent rights, they will abide by this decision.

So, either this single poster above is wrong or the Family Law and Tax attorneys I just spoke with are incorrect, though they both agree with the other, and laughed at this above declaration.

Im just wondering can my x boyfriend claim for my son his father is unemployed now in havent paid me no maintenance for the past 6 months or am i the only person that can claim