If the judge signs the order that is what you have to follow. There are many poorly informed people who weighed in on this post. The bottom line is in my personal experience and in many other cases I know of first hand and upon consulting family law attorneys; family court judges often overstep their purview and order things that conflict with IRS federal law. As a family court participant you are at their mercy and it is seldom fruitful to disagreed or question a family court judge. I requested a reconsideration after my family court judge gave the child tax deduction to my ex, for five years straight , even though I am the custodial parent and pay for medical insurance and many things that he does not pay for. The judge denied my request to reconsider and therefore I was out several more thousand dollars of attorneys fees and he still has the deduction. There are people on this site who say oh you have to sign that form well I’ve never signed that form and he has obtained the child tax deduction without me signing it. I recommend treading very carefully when dealing in Family Court matters, because, by simply pointing out that the judge may have made a mistake, or overstepped their authority that can result in a situation, where they become vindictive, and do things like threaten to take custody away, or provide a more unfair ruling, also when dealing with Family Court matters, it’s very expensive. I did find one person on the East Coast who was trying to appeal an unfair family court ruling where the non-custodial parent was granted the child tax deduction I am unsure what materialized in her case, but in my case, I tried to have the judge reconsider and she did not grant my request so my ex , a non-custodial parent who makes three times as much money as I do, and pays very little in child support gets the child tax deduction . He also was able to get the Covid relief stimulus funds which amounted to very little because od his higher income bracket.
