Q. What do I do next?
A. Call your lawyer.
The IRS will not honor court papers. The
IRS goes by physical custody, not legal custody. They will honor her claim and rejects yours. Your only remedy is to take her back to court for sanctions.
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.
So, it's good idea to let the other parent know that you
will be claiming those items, as many first time divorced parents are not aware
of this rule and may try to claim those items, which will cause the IRS to send
out letters.
Ref: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html#en_US_2014_publink1000170897
Scroll down to "Children of divorced or
separated parents (or parents who live apart)"
