My ex wife files my son as a resident and i file him as a dependent. every year i file i have issues . once again its rejecting my claim

[wizard052016]

My ex wife files our son as a resident and per court orders i can file hime as a dependent. Every year I have issues with this , now once again my claim gets rejected  

[macuser_22]

What is the reject code?

If you are the non-custodial parent that the child did not physically live with then you can only claim the child's exemption and child tax credit.  You can never claim the EIC or child care credit - those both require that you physically lived with the child and the custodial parent gets to claim  those credits.  Perhaps you are trying to claim a credit that you are not entitled to claim.   A dependent is only the exemption that a court can order - other credits are determined by Federal tax law that a court cannot change.

If you are the non-custodial parent where the child did not physically live for more than half the year (183 nights) then:

When you enter the dependent, you say that he is "Your child" (not you and new spouse if remarried),
He/she lived with you zero months,
“no” the child did not pay more than half of his/her own support,
"yes", you have a custody agreement, and
"yes” I am claiming this year.

That will give you the child's exemption, and child tax credit.  
 
The EIC, and Child Care Credits can only be claimed by the parent where the child actually lived.     

[PatriciaR · Accepted solution]

To prevent fraudulent returns, the IRS will only accept each dependent's SSN once in their e-file system. Because the other parent filed first and used your child’s SSN (even though the other parent did not claim him as a dependent), no further e-files using that SSN will be accepted. 

You will need to print, sign, and mail your tax return to the IRS.  Your tax return will be accepted if you paper file.

If the other parent files first, your tax return will always be rejected because your child's SSN is on the other parent's tax return.  The only way to fix this would be for you to file before the other parent.