No. You need to NOT claim dependent care.
There is a
special rule in the case of divorced & separated (including never married) parents.
When the non-custodial parent is claiming the child as a dependent/exemption/child
tax credit; the custodial parent is still allowed to claim the same child for
Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status, and day care credit.
This "splitting of the child" is not available to parents who lived
together at any time during the last 6 months of the year; then only one of you
can claim the child for any tax reasons. The tax benefits may not be split in
any other manner.
Note in particular
that the non-custodial parent can never claim the Earned Income Credit, Head of
Household filing status or the day care credit, based on that child, even when the custodial parent has released
the exemption to him.
So, it's good idea to let the other parent know that you
will be claiming those items, as many first time divorced parents are not aware
of this rule and may try to claim those items, which will cause the IRS to send
out letters.
Ref: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html#en_US_2014_publink1000170897
Scroll down to "Children of divorced or
separated parents (or parents who live apart)"
For tax purposes, there is no such thing as joint
custody, regardless of what
your legal agreement says. The requirement, to be custodial parent, is that the child live
with you MORE than 50% of the time. One of you has to be the custodial parent
and the other the non-custodial parent. The IRS goes by physical custody, not legal
custody.
Yes, the IRS expects you to count the numbers
of nights the child sleeps at each parent's home. It is allowed for you
to arrange the children's schedules so that one child spends more than half the
year with the father while the other spends more than half with the mother.
Then you are each the custodial parent of one child.
