Child's mother worked last 4 mos. of '07. I claimed child all year,who gets to claim child for tax year '07?

I believe that it's fair that I claim her for my tax returns. (I always give her half). If she files first and claims our child, I would have to pay taxes on the whole year, right?

It would be fair for you to claim the child on your taxes, and it would probably give both of you more money if she gets half...but she can claim the child if she has custody, and there has been no court order allowing you to claim him/her. When you say 'claim' I assume you mean that you took that child as an exemption on your W-4 form. That only makes it so they don't take as much tax out of each paycheck. It doesn't affect year end taxes as far as which of you gets to claim the child.

It would be pretty dumb for her to claim the child on 4 months worth of income. It would get her more money...but she didn't pay all that much IN, so she wouldn't get that much more OUT if she took that deduction.

The custodial parent (the parent the child lives with for the greater part of the year) has the right to claim him or her, unless there is a valid court order giving the exemption to the other parent, or unless the custodial parent gives permission to the other parent IN WRITING to claim the child.

Who did the child live with the most during the year? That is the person who can legally claim the child. If she lived the same amount of time with both and you two cannot decide the IRS will decide and that will be the parent with the higher AGI.

If the mother and child lived with you the entire year and she did not earn over 3,400 and you provided over half of her total support and you paid more than half of the cost of keeping up a home for the year you can file head of household and claim both of them.

The mother can still file a tax return to get a refund of her taxes paid as long as she does not claim herself.

If you did not live with the mother and child and the child lived with the mother you two can share the dependent if the mother agres. She can use the child for head of household(if she qualifies) and EIC and dependent care credit and you can use the child as an exemption and child tax credit

The best thing is for the two of you to agree how you will handle the situation. You can't split the child 50/50 - though in some situations one parent can claim the deduction, and the other parent can use the child to claim head of household - you might check to see if she is trying to do this...

If you give her half the refund, then the best bet is to claim the child because you both will get the most tax benefit - especially if you are in the 35% tax bracket and she is in the 10% tax bracket!

Generally the IRS leaves it up to the parents to agree who will claim the child. The deduction is taken by the IRS on the first tax return that is filed. If someone comes along and files a second return that also claims that child - then the IRS starts making adjustments and sending letters.

If the two parents cannot agree on who will claim the child - the IRS will step in with the "tie-breaker rules" they follow in these circumstances.

Parents trump non-parents.
"Custody" trumps "non-custody".
Higher AGI trumps lower AGI.

If the IRS steps in, the dependent exemption is given to the parent the child lives with the most in that year. (Hence, even if the child lives with her, it is probably to both of your advantages for the two of you to agree that you will claim the child - though she may still be able to file as Head of Household.)

If the child lives 50/50 with both parents, then the dependent exemption goes to the parent with the highest AGI - that sounds like you would get the deduction in this case...

Hello There!

I am going to answer this question under the following premise:

Since you didn't say that the child's mother lived apart from you, I am assuming that you lived together.

IF the mother only worked 4 months of the years, and lived with you and the baby for the entire year, it would seem to me that you provided more than 50% of the mother and child's living expenses. So, in that case, you should file "Head of Household, with 2 dependents". Those dependents being the baby and the mother.

If your income is under a certain amount, you could qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Additional Child Tax Credit, besides the regular Child Tax Credit and this could give you a GIANT REFUND.

The mother would then file SINGLE with no dependents and since she worked only a short period of time she would probably get most of the money that was taken out, BACK as a refund..

I would have to have a whole lot more details to answer this so that your situation can give you the best tax "filing status" advantage.

Did the mother and the child live with you for more than half the year? If not, if the mother and child lived separate from you, and you paid child support and gave gifts or even loans. . .well, you are S*&t out of luck.

A CPA or a Taxpreparer should be consulted. There are very strict rules by the IRS regarding who can claim a child due to the incredible Refunds a child being used as a dependent can bring in a tax return. The Earned Income Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit are refundable tax credits. Which means that even if you don't owe any taxes and are not entitled to any refund, you would get the Earned Income Tax Credit (real money) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (again real money) as a REFUND! Yup! Those Tax Credits will produce a nice big check for you if your income is low enough. And when you are filing as Head of Household with a child as a dependent, your income doesn't have to be seriously low to get you a nice big check.

And was the Child in Daycare or After School Care when the mother was working? Again, another deductions.. the Dependent Care Deduction.

So, Did the Mother live with you for the whole year? Did the child live with you for more than half the year? If not, then you have no claim at all, unless the mother signs a court paper saying you can put the child on your taxes! And any woman who would EVER do that is just plain stupid.

If they lived in your house, and you provided more than half of their support.. .then you have two dependents to claim and a much better tax situation.

But always tell the truth on your taxes.. . .you don't need to be tied up in financial limbo for endless years over a dissagreement with the IRS.

And unfortunately for you, even though you *think* you claimed the baby all year, all you did was fill out a form saying that you had a child to reduce the amount of taxes that were taken out of your pay. Depending on your yearly income, and a few other things, you may not really owe too much.. . maybe nothing. There are just too many variables in the preparation of a Tax Return to know that from just the little bit of information you put in your question.

What you put on that paper with your employer doesn't really have anything to do with anything except increasing your take home pay amount and probably increasing the taxes you will owe if the mother or the child didn't live with you!

If the mother or "the mother & child" or the child didn't live with you, you have no right to use them to increase the amount in your pay check by lowering the taxes that are taken out.

That is a fast way to trouble.

If you don't earn that much, under $27,000 a year approximately, and the child or the :Mother & the child" live with you, and you do need additional money when you get paid, you can fill out some papers and get an ADVANCE of the Earned Income Credit. YUP!

If you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is a REAL MONEY to you, you don't have to wait to file taxes every year to get that money. . .NOPE you can get that additional money in advance!

But if your situation changes for the better or the mother & child move out, STOP those early payments immediately or you could get into serious debt with the IRS.

You can write me through Yahoo! Answers with more detail if you like. It might take a day or more to answer as I am on a business trip right now, and will be back at work, preparing taxes on Monday.

Not enough info. . . . .
Who did child live with? The custodial parent has the stronger claim than the noncustodial parent. Who paid support for the child--not the mother if she didn't work until last 4 months. Is there a written agreement between the parents as to who gets to claim child? Are you married? Were you married? Only a custodial parent is entitled to some tax credits.

In general, the custodial parent claims the child, unless there is a specific agreement saying otherwise. If she files first and claims the child, you can also claim her on your tax return, and then the IRS will sort it out. The claim usually goes to the custodial parent, though, unless there is a written agreement that states otherwise, so keep that in mind.

Many divorced couples alternate years claiming the children. That might be something to suggest to her as a compromise.

EDIT - Debbie D. is wrong. Child support is *not* deductible for the person who pays it and it is *not* counted as income by the person who receives it.

Your right and you both really need to talk about this because its also going to effect the tax rebate of 300 per child coming in May and who get that also.
Only one may claim and if you don't have a legal piece of paper saying who gets her you may be in for a fight.

depends where the child stayed. As far as income goes, you should be up one. If your child stayed with you more than half the year then you can claim your kid. The mother can't claim your kid unless you gave her a permission to do so.

Well if you have already been claiming them on your end then she can't claim the child also. SO I believe you get to claim them.

between father and mother?custody and who the child lives with is the one who uses the child as a tax deduction,but, if she lives with you 50%of the year and you pay over 50%of her living expenses, you should be able to claim?you can claim all your child support, and she must claim it as income. be careful that both you don't claim child, someone will owe some serious money to government!!!!!!!!!!!!

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