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 lived 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 IRS
expects you to count the nights the child sleeps at each home.
In the rare case (could probably only happen in a leap year like
2016), where the time that each parent has the child is exactly equal,
then the parent with the higher AGI is the custodial parent, for the purpose of
determining who has first priority on claiming the child as a dependent.
But then neither parent can claim a Qualifying Child dependent, for some
tax benefits because neither parent had the child the required MORE than half
the year. (no earned income
credit, based on that child, and the child would not qualify the parent
for Head of Household filing status).
That said, essentially you can decide between you who will claim
the child. And, if the number of nights is equal, you can decide between you
who is the custodial parent. As long as you can agree, the IRS most likely
won't question it. ideally, you arrange you custody schedule so that the
parent claiming to be the custodial parent actually has him more than half the
nights.
The custodial parent has first
priority on claiming the children on
his/her taxes; regardless of the amount of support 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. The requirement, to be custodial
parent, is that the child live with you MORE than 50% of the
time, regardless of what your legal agreement says*.
There is a way to split the tax
benefits. For future negotiations with the other parent (and maybe even for
this year) the following info may be of use:
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
*If the child lived with each
parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is
the parent with the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) (2012 Pub 17 pg 28).
