topic The father of my child is claiming our daughter as dependant this year. I filed my taxes later then him, and he claims this has delaying his tax return. Is that possible? in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

The father of my child is claiming our daughter as dependant this year. I filed my taxes later then him, and he claims this has delaying his tax return. Is that possible?

joelleflatley — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 15:36:35 GMT

No. If he filed first and claimed your child, then his r...

xmasbaby0 — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 15:36:45 GMT

No. If he filed first and claimed your child, then his refund is not being delayed because you filed a tax return. If his return was accepted then your child's SSN is in the system. After that, your return would have been rejected if you also tried to claim her. He can blame the IRS for the time it is taking for his return to be processed, but he cannot blame you.

There is a special rule in the case of divorced & separat...

Hal_Al — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 15:36:49 GMT

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 exemption to him.

So, it's good idea to let the other parent know that you will be claiming those items, as many first time divorced parents are not aware of this rule and may try to claim those items, which will cause the IRS to send out letters.

Ref: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html#en_US_2014_publink1000170897 Scroll down to "Children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart)"