Letting my daughter mom claim her this year we made a deal to switch off every year but I pay for her day care what do I need to do on my taxes

[bgoodall93]

I pay for my daughters schooling her mother and I made a deal to switch off every year to claim her so last year I claimed her this year her mom will be claiming her but I pay for the daycare do I get a tax break for paying for her school even if I’m not claiming her this year

[rjs]

You called it both daycare and school. Which is it? There is no tax credit for school tuition below college.

Do you and the child's mother live together? If not, the credit for child care does not depend on who claims the child as a dependent. The custodial parent gets the credit. The custodial parent is the one that the child lived with for more than half the year, whether or not that parent claims the child.

[rjs]

To be more precise, the custodial parent can claim the child care credit for daycare or for nursery school, pre-school, or similar "school" programs below kindergarten. The cost of school for kindergarten or higher grades is not eligible for the child care credit.

[Hal_Al]

The answer depends on your living situation. 

If you are an unmarried couple living together, the answer is no. Only the parent claiming the child as a dependent can claim the day care credit (and any other tax benefits).

If you are a divorced or separated couple (including never married), then it depends  on who the child lives with the most (who is the custodial parent).  Only the custodial parent can claim the day care credit. But he/she  can do so even when the other parent is claiming the child as a dependent.  The IRS goes by physical custody, not legal custody. 

 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/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 dependency to him.

If you and the other parent live together, either one of you (but not both) may claim the child. You may decide between you which one will claim the child. And you are allowed to switch off every year. Only if you can’t agree, do the IRS tie breaker rules apply, to see who has first choice. It may be worthwhile to prepare trial returns, both ways,  to see which way the family comes out best. This tool may be useful: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1.

[Opus 17]

If you are living together unmarried, then only one parent can claim the child as a dependent, and that parent gets all the benefits.  The other parent should not even list the child on their tax return.

If you are living apart (divorced or separated) and sharing custody, then the only person who can claim head of household status and claim the day care credit is the parent where the child lived more than half the nights of the year, regardless of any agreement.  You can agree to switch the child tax credit around, but EIC, HOH and the dependent care credit always stay with the parent who had custody more than half the year, and can't be waived, transferred or shared.