Yes, you can claim the dependents on your tax return.
When the court granted legal custody, the custodial parent's rights come first. If the courts said nothing about who claims the dependencies for tax purposes, then they are yours to claim. You have been declared the parent.
There are tie-breaker rules to determine who gets to claim a child for tax purposes. These are listed in order of priority:
The parents, if they file a joint return;.
The parent, if only one of the persons is the child's parent;
The
parent with whom the child lived the longest during the tax year, if
two of the persons are the child's parent and they do not file a joint
return together;
The
parent with the highest adjusted gross income (AGI) if the child lived
with each parent for the same amount of time during the tax years, and
they do not file a joint return together;
The person with the highest AGI, if no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child; or
A person with the higher AGI than any parent who can claim the child as a qualifying child but does not.
Under these rules, the court has superceded the birth parents' rights by granting them to you.
If your tax return is rejected because the dependents have already been claimed, then you will need to file by mail. The IRS will send you a letter requesting proof that you have the right to claim the children. Do not send additional documents with your tax return; wait until the IRS requests them.
