How can I get the child and dependent care credit if I am the custodial parent but do not have my child claimed as a dependent?

[emperormusic616]

I have primary custody of my two year old son who is with me 75% of the year. Per our court order, his mother and I claim him as a dependent every other year. I am not able to claim him as a dependent this year. However, under the IRS "special rules" of this credit, I qualify without having to claim him as a dependent.  I am custodial parent (he lives with me the majority of the year), and his mother and I do not live together.

However, TurboTax will not let me claim this credit. I HAVE to claim him as a dependent to get this credit. Is there a way around this to apply for this credit without claiming him as a dependent per IRS rules?

[Phillip1 · Accepted solution]

Yes. The child care credit can only be claimed by the custodial parent and the child tax credit is claimed by the parent that claims the exemption.

Go through his dependent screens again. 

1. Enter that he spends more than half of the year with you.
2. "You have a custody agreement."
3. and "Yes, the other parent is claiming him as a dependent this year"

This should leave you eligible to use the dependent for the child care credit.

[alberta-james5]

add dependent

[nicholeper]

So if my efile is being rejected because I followed all of the above steps, is it most likely because my child's other parent claimed both credits and they should have only claimed the child tax credit?

[aliciadawnw]

Not necessarily. Only the first tax return with the dependents social security number will be allowed to be e-filed.  Even thought both the custodial and non-custodial parent may file a tax return with the dependent on it(non custodial may use the dependent to file for dependent/exemption/child tax credit and the custodial parent may file strictly for Head of Household/Earned Income Credit and day care credit) only the first one to file their taxes will be allowed to e-file the one who does their taxes after can still claim for the above purposes but they won't be able to efile so they'll have to print their taxes out and send them through snail mail.

It doesn't matter what or how the other parent used the child for claiming, the reason you as the other parent wasn't able to efile is because the IRS only lets a social security number be used one time to file online.

[macuser_22]

@aliciadawnw - That is not correct.   Under the special rule for divorced or separated parents that lived apart, and there is a custody agreement as indicated in the answer above, both parents can claim the same child with the same SSN and both e-filed tax returns will be accepted.

The non-custodial parent can claim the child's exemption (that goes away in 2018), and the child tax credit only, the custodial parent can claim the child care credit and EIC only.   The custodial parent can also use the child to file Head of Household, it otherwise qualified.

However, the e-filed return will reject because the SSN had already been used if both parents try to claim on of the credits that only the other parent can claim.  For example, if the non-custodial parent first claims the dependent child and the EIC (that only the custodial parent is allowed to claim) then then 2nd e-filed tax return will reject, since both parents are not allowed to claim the same credits for the same child.    As long as each parent only claims the credits that they are entitled to and the child is listed as a "non-dependent" on the custodial parents tax return, then both than returns will accept.