How do i claim my child that i had six months in the same house hold with my wife then seperated and had her 3 more months out of the year?

[njenningchem]

me and my wife seperated in june of 2020 and had split 50/50 custody the rest of the year and i get to claim her on my taxes for 2020

[Critter-3]

If the child lived with for 9 months then indicate that when asked.  

[Carl]

From how I am interpreting your post, it appears that you had the dependent child the most nights of the year. That makes you the custodial parent.

IRS, not local court decisions, apply to the situation when it comes to federal taxes.

You basically have two classifications for separated or divorced parents.

Custodial Parent - This is the parent with whom the child lived for more than 182 nights (not days) of the tax year. The nights do not have to be consecutive. Temporary absences, such as summer camp, school, hospital stays, etc count for this, provided the child returns to the home of the custodial parent at the end of the temporary absence. (There are exceptions for the "return" part). If the parents lived together for part of the tax year, then the custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived the most nights of the tax year. The custodial parent has the right to claim the child as their dependent on their tax return.

Non-Custodial Parent - This is the parent that does not qualify as the custodial parent, using the guidance for custodial parent above. the non-custodial parent can claim the child, only if the custodial parent provides the non-custodial parent with a signed IRS Form 8332 releasing their right to claim the child, to the custodial parent. While the non-custodial parent can claim the child if they have a signed Form 3332 from the custodial parent, the custodial parent still retains the right to claim the EIC for that child, if the child qualifies them for that EIC.

[Opus 17]

Because the child lived with you more than half the nights of the year, you are allowed to claim the child as a dependent without requiring any permission from a court or from the other parent. However, the child also lived more than half the nights of the year with the other parent, and therefore the other parent also has the right to claim the child as dependent. The first tiebreaker is which parent had custody the greater number of nights.  If both parents claim the child as a dependent, the IRS will send a letter of investigation to each parent, and you will have to prove, by means of a diary or notes or other records that the child lived with you more nights than with the other parent.  The IRS does not recognize custody orders and does not recognize “50-50“ custody, you have to actually count the number of nights where the child lived. In the case where the child lived exactly the same number of nights with each parent, the second tiebreaker will award the dependent to the parent with the higher income.

There is a series of special rules for claiming a dependent when the parents are divorced or separated and share custody, and those rules will apply for 2021 and the future, but those special rules do not apply for 2020 because each parent had custody more than half the nights of the year.