My divorce decree states that the noncustodial parent can claim our child as a dependent on taxes as long as he is eligible to be claimed, and that should the non-custodial parent not receive any economic benefit from the claim, the custodial parent shall have the option of claiming. I am the custodial parent. I argued against this at mediation but my attorney said to just leave this in the separation agreement because my ex (the non-custodial parent) made too much money to ever be able to claim our child, and that I'll get to do it (my ex made over $1 million last year). I want to claim our child because a) I'm the custodial parent and b) I meet the income requirements to get the $3600 child tax credit. I have consulted with two CPAs, one told me not to claim our child since my decree says my ex can, and the other CPA said I should claim our child because the wording is vague of whether my ex will get a benefit and that based on AGI there's no way she could see him getting the benefit, which according to the decree, than allows me the option of claiming in the calendar year. My ex never does his taxes until Sept/Oct because of K-1s. Can I just go ahead and claim our child? My ex now wants to "coordinate" on filing (even though we're divorced)- which tells me he knows he isn't going to get a benefit to claiming probably. I suppose he could take me to family court in Virginia and the judge could stop me from claiming but the CPA said there's no way he will get any benefit and a judge wouldn't like stop me from claiming because I will get a benefit from the dependency claim but that was one CPA's opinion. Any experience with this?
