Head of Household and Claimed Dependent

[azhottie11]

I am the residential parent and it is the other parents year to claim our child for the 2024 tax year. I completed my taxes first as Head of Household and the other parent tried to claim our child as a dependent but received an error of some sort stating someone else claimed our child. Did this happen because I filed first as head of household or is it a separate possibility? I spoke with the IRS and there was no flag/fraud tied to my child’s SSN. (Both parents are not together, never married and do not live together)

[xmasbaby0]

Are you the custodial parent?  Do you have an agreement with the other parent to allow the other parent to claim them--due to divorce or that you live apart and share custody?  Did one of you sign a Form 8332?

If there is a signed 8332 then the custodial parent retains the right to file as Head of Household, get earned income credit and the childcare credit.  The non-custodial parent gets the child tax credit for children under the age of 17.  If the child is 17 or older the non-custodial parent gets the $500 credit for other dependents.

If you and the other parent have a signed agreement, you need to indicate in MY INFO that you have such an agreement.

As far as the IRS is concerned, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child spent the most nights during the tax year--at least 183 nights.

If you are a non-married couple who live together with your child, then only one of you can claim the child(ren) and the one not claiming the child does not enter anything at all on their tax return about the child.   The “sharing” of child-related credits you may have heard about is only possible between divorced or never married parents who live apart and share custody and who have a written agreement to share the credits.    The child’s SSN can only be entered on one tax return.   Any other return with the child’s SSN on it will be rejected.   If you are a family, then work out how to share the refund between yourselves.

[azhottie11]

Thank you for your reply! I am the custodial parent, we are never married and live in separate households, only 1 very young child, and our court order allows for alternating tax years. At this point the other non-custodial parent has been the only one who has claimed our child and there had never been any issues until this tax year. I have a Tax Preparer so I’m assuming they automatically filed the Form 8332. But I filed my taxes before the other parent this year as Head of Household but did not claim our child as a dependent. I was told it wouldn’t affect the other parents taxes so I’m not sure if it actually did affect it or if there is another reason why they received an error.

[xmasbaby0]

@azhottie11 Look at your Form 1040.   Is there an amount on line 19 or on line 28?

[azhottie11]

They are both 0

[xmasbaby0]

Then the other parents' return might be getting rejected for some other reason.   If they are claiming the child for the child tax credit, they can still do so---but print, sign and mail their return and let the IRS sort out the duplicate use of the SSN.

[rjs]

@azhottie11 

You said "I have a Tax Preparer so I’m assuming they automatically filed the Form 8332." The tax preparer cannot file the Form 8332, and you cannot file it. As the custodial parent, you have to sign the paper Form 8332 and give it to the noncustodial parent. The noncustodial parent has to attach the Form 8332 that you signed to their tax return. If they e-file they can mail the signed Form 8332 separately, attached to Form 8453 as a cover page.

To have any hope of figuring out why the other parent got an error trying to file their tax return, we would have to know, at a minimum, the complete exact error message, including any code.

You said you did not claim the child as a dependent, but you did not prepare the tax return yourself. Does the child's name appear in the Dependents section in the middle of the first page of your Form 1040?