"We have joint through the attorney general" For tax purposes, there is no such thing as joint custody, regardless of what your legal agreement says. The requirement, to be custodial parent, is that the child live with you
MORE than 50% of the time. One of you has to be the custodial parent and the
other the non-custodial parent.
The
custodial parent has first priority on claiming the children on her taxes;
regardless of the amount of support provided (or not provided) by the non-custodial parent. The
non-custodial parent can only claim the child as a dependent if the custodial
parent gives permission (on form 8332) or if it's spelled out in a pre 2009
divorce decree.
There is a way to split the tax benefits. This may be helpful in your negotiations with the ex:
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.
Ref: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html#en_US_2014_publink1000170897
