No, you “cannot report this to the IRS”. If the court order
says he gets to claim the child, as a dependent, then he gets to do so and you
could be subject to a contempt of court citation if you interfere. It does not
matter that you don’t agree with the court’s logic or even the logic is totally
wrong. The order says he gets to claim the child.
That said, the IRS does not enforce court orders. If you claim
the child, the IRS will honor your tax return because it meets their rules. You
Ex’s only remedy is to take you back to court for sanctions.
There is a way to split the tax benefits. There is a special rule in the case of
divorced & separated (including never married) parents. When the
non-custodial parent is claiming the child as a dependent/exemption (2017)/child
tax credit; the custodial parent is still allowed to claim the same child for
Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status, and day care credit.
This "splitting of the child" is not available to parents who lived
together at any time during the last 6 months of the year; then only one of you
can claim the child for any tax reasons. The tax benefits may not be split in
any other manner.
Note in particular that the non-custodial parent can never
claim the Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status or the day care
credit, based on that child, even when the custodial parent has released the
exemption to him.
