Splitting the credit??? Wow, what a difficult thing to get to the bottom of. So yes, under special rules for divorced parents, usually father the higher earner and noncustodial parent can claim the Dependent Exemption and the Child Tax Credits but not the EIC , Head of Household, and Child Care Expenses (which goes to mom). AND whats neat is that the residence test of having the child over 6 months does not apply to the special situation. SO father can have the child less than 6 months and still claim the dependency exemption. But for the online tax software you will still have to put "7 months" to get it to process. Some of these things are explained all over the place in bits and pieces. I guess the IRS doesnt make it obvious. You have to gather the info yourself to make it all whole. Notice when the IRS answers some questions about splitting an exemption they are saying "no" to splitting the same "dependent exemption". But you CAN split other child tax benefits, like EIC to one parents, and dependent exemption to the other parent under special divorced situation. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.eitc.irs.gov/Tax-Preparer-Toolkit/faqs/divorced">https://www.eitc.irs.gov/Tax-Preparer-T... at the IRS answer in bold and not the initial "no". The trick is if separated last 6 months of the year AND form 8332 is signed.) Also the descriptions here about a "qualifying child" <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/uac/A-%E2%80%9CQualifying-Child%E2%80%9D">https://www.irs.gov/uac/A-%E2%80%9CQua...> (notice how under residency test it says exceptions apply for special cases like divorced parents). Form 8332 also explains a little itself how residency test does not apply. One thing that is left confusing is if mom can still claim child tax credit if dad does not need it etc. The IRS answers that elsewhere here and says no. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/Help-&-Resources/Tools-&-FAQs/FAQs-for-Individuals/Frequently-Asked-Tax-Question... form 8332 is signed mom signs over child tax credit and the dependent exemption.
