To determine if you or your spouse should claim your child and mortgage expenses, review the IRS Rules below.
When you file your taxes using Married Filing Separately (MFS) filing status and have a child, only one parent can claim the same qualifying child and get the tax breaks. The parent who the child lives with and provides their housing for most of the year gets to claim the child. If the child lived with both parents equally, then the IRS rule is that the parent with the highest adjusted gross income (AGI) gets to claim the child.
The spouse who made the mortgage and property tax payments on the house gets to claim the mortgage interest and property tax. If both of you were liable and paid, you divide the interest and property taxes equally. You can attach an explanation on your tax return explaining the amount of interest you paid on your 1098 - Mortgage Interest form.
Just remember that you and your spouse will have to agree on if you will be claiming the Standard Deduction or itemized deductions. If one of you itemizes and claims mortgage interest and property taxes, the other one can't use the Standard Deduction.
Refer to The IRS Rule for MFS splitting itemized deductions.
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