Massachusetts Child & family tax credit; non transferable

[denise14107]

Mass. says the child & family tax credit is non transferable; does that mean it can't be 'given' to an ex spouse? You can't share this as you can on the federal level? I can't find anything re this. No clear instruction re this. thanks!

[BillM223]

The non-custodial spouse can take the Child and Family credit under certain conditions. Please see the MA technical information release TIR 24-13, which amplifies on the conditions in which a non-custodial spouse can take the credit, which is what I assumed you meant. Note that the child in question must be a dependent of the spouse taking the credit.

You can't, as you suspect, just give the credit willy-nilly to someone else. 

[denise14107 · Accepted solution]

I actually was going to post today that I called DOR today, and got the answers I needed. That TIR (thanks, I saw that before) is very confusing; and appears to attempt to address too many different scenarios in a few short paragraphs, to the point where it didn't really address the particular issue I was trying to answer...I didn't think anyway. It addresses under age 13, over age 13, physically or mentally disabled, not disabled, over 65, etc. And of course refers you multiple code sections and more TIRs. I wish it were broken down better and rewritten! But thanks anyway.

The short official answer, what I was looking for is, that in general, if an ex spouse (non custodial parent) is taking the child on the federal return that year (and getting the federal child tax credit), then that's enough to get the credit on the Mass. return (in general). Nothing needs to be attached.

thanks anyway.