@ckenison7 wrote:
He was re-married and she has to file on his behalf. I have read that whoever provides more than 50% of support gets to claim the dependents. I have had them full time since September, plus the 50% we shared from January through August.
For children who are under 18 and subject to a custody order, the key factor is not income or support, but where the children lived more than half the year (which parent had custody longer). For non-leap years with 365 days, more than half means 183 or more nights. If you had custody for half the days at the beginning of the year (about 135 days) plus all the days at the end of the year (about 90 days) then you can claim the children as dependents.
Note that a stepparent has the same legal rights to claim a child as a dependent as a biological parent, subject to the same tests of residency and other factors. However, under the circumstances you describe, the stepmother had custody about 135 nights in total, which is less than half the nights of the year, so the children don't qualify as her dependents.
