My former wife and I, in our 2007 PROPERTY SETTLEMENT AND STIPULATION AGREEMENT (on file at our county court house) agreed to take the the child tax deduction "every other year" she, the ODD years and I the EVEN years. This is how it's always been. There is no mention in our AGREEMENT about the number months our child was to live with one or the other to claim the deduction.
I have all my previous returns (a majority of which were prepared by a well respected CPA) to prove this agreement to be the historical case.
NOW, enter the IRS Form 8332 (new to me) The form stipulates that "In order to use the dependent as a deduction, he must have lived with me (the noncustodial parent) for 6 months or more during any tax year. So now, I must choose whether to simply lie on my return and state that he lived with me for at least 6 months OR , deal with a very "contentious" individual. In this case the IRS Form 8332 is not applicable. Our
agreement since we signed the 2007 PROPERTY SETTLEMENT STIPULATION AGREEMENT of record supercedes IRS Form 8332 andproves that "length of time " with either parent isn't an issue. It's a forgone conclusion.
What do the experts say?
