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Do I need legal agreement if my son dad doesn't have any legal responsibility?
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Get your taxes done using TurboTax
No.
The custodial parent has first priority on claiming the children on her taxes; regardless of the amount of support provided by the non-custodial parent or amount of involvement in parenting. The IRS goes by physical custody, not legal custody. The non-custodial parent can only claim the child as a dependent if the custodial parent gives permission (on form 8332) or if it's spelled out in a pre 2009 divorce decree. Even if a divorce decree, dated after 2008, gives the non-custodial parent the right to claim the child, he must still get form 8332 from the custodial parent. A properly worded decree should require her to provide that form. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8332.pdf
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.
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There is a way to split the tax benefits. But doing so is totally your choice, if you are the custodial parent.
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)"