@Jbrown6802 wrote:
We do not have a court order paperwork. Only thing we have is a notarized piece of paper stating that the non custodial parent claims one child for 2 years. Only reason I signed this was because he refused to sign to say I had primary physical custody even though the children live with me. My question is, do I still have to let him claim one child on taxes even though there is a notarized paper and it's not court ordered? Children both live with me. He argues constantly that he should claim one because theres a cap on how many kids you can claim, I'll be claiming 4 in total. He says he should be able to claim one because of the cap.
There is nothing for him to sign that says you had custody more than half the nights of the year. If you have custody, you are entitled to claim the children. If both of you claim the children, the IRS will investigate, but what you need is proof the children lived with you, you don't need permission from him. Proof could be photos, social media posts, and other documents that show where the children spend most of their time. Most especially you should be saving letters from outside authorities that are sent to you or the kids at your home; things like letters from schools, report cards, school bus pickup schedules, letters from doctors and dentists about appointments, and so on. Save these kinds of letters and their envelopes to show the IRS the children lived in your home.
There is no "cap" on the number of children you can claim as dependents. There is a cap on EIC only, where claiming more than three children gets you the same EIC as 3 children. But if the children don't live with the other parent, he doesn't legally qualify to use them for EIC; even if you agreed to share, it would be tax fraud.
The IRS can't order you to release the dependent to the other parent. Only a family court could do that.
