California Claiming a dependent who does not live with you.

[futuristicf]

My 19-year old son lives with his other parent.  We share expenses and this is my year to claim him.   I have an IRS-8332.

How do I handle this in TurboTax, California State Return.      The head of household questionnaire asks if he lives with me and treats him as a "non'dependant".   Is there an option to specify that I have an agreement with the other parent?

[MaryK4]

No, unfortunately, for the California Head of Household, the qualifying relative must live with you.  The tax agreement only applies to claiming him as a dependent.  

[Bsch4477]

I assume that he is a full time student which would allow him to be claimed as a dependent or else qualifies as a qualifying relative. 

If you don’t have another child living with you then you can’t file as Head of Household on federal or CA returns. Only the custodial parent—even when not claiming the dependency—can file as HOH, claim earned income credit and child care credit if otherwise qualified. You as the non custodial parent claiming the dependency can only receive other child tax credit of $500. 

[Hal_Al]

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.

Ref: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17#en_US_2017_publink1000170897

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