Usually, the custodial parent gets to claim any qualifying children as dependents.
If you can’t agree on who claims the child, the tie-breaker rules apply. Under the tie-breaker rules, the child is a qualifying child only for:
- Whoever the child lived with the longest during the tax year
- The parent with the highest AGI if the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time during the year
- The person with the highest AGI if no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child
- A person with an AGI higher than any parent if the parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but doesn’t
The IRS won’t allow two different people to e-file using the same dependent Social Security number (SSN).
If more than one person claims the same dependent then the IRS will then send a letter to both of you to determine who gets to claim the exemption for the child.
