YEAR OF DIVORCE: DO WE REPORT WORKING SPOUSE'S W-2 INCOME?

[Alvin Gregorio]

Hello All,

(I will write this as if I am the person of the subject-- my friend, whom I will be helping prepare her taxes this year via TurboTax)

Scenario:

>State= California

>After an amicable marriage dissolution process that took over two years, my divorce from my husband of 19 years was finalized by Court judgement on 9/28/20.

>For the past 14 years, I have been a non-working (outside the home) "stay-at-home wife and mom".
>My (now ex-) husband had been-- and continues to be-- the sole income earner for those 14 years.

>I did not earn income myself over the past 14 years nor the year 2020.
>We had been for all our married years filing Jointly.

>The Court divorce judgement decree states nothing about reporting income for tax purposes.

My having custody of the 14-year old and 19-year-old (turned 19 in October of 2020) children 26 days of a 30 day month, I know that I should file "Head of Household" for the year 2020.

Question:

1)  What do I claim for income, if anything?
2)  Am I legally obligated in any way to claim any of my (now ex-) husband's earned W-2-reported income for/on my year-2020 tax return?

Answers to the above and any other input on the subject is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Alvin

[ToddL99]

Based on the information you provided, you do not have any income to report.

Child support (if awarded) is not reported as income on the custodial parent's return and alimony (if any) is not considered taxable income for the recipient (if you divorced after 2018).

You are not legally obligated to report any of your husband's income (W2 or any other) on your 2020 tax return.

[xmasbaby0]

Your newly divorced friend does not need to enter anything whatsoever about her ex-spouse's income on her own tax return.   She is now either Single ( or perhaps Head of Household if she is the custodial parent of the children.)   Nothing about her ex-spouse goes on her return with a filing status of Single or Head of Household.

If she had no income in 2020 then she has no income to enter on a tax return.   She will not be eligible for any child-related tax credits if she did not earn any income on her own.  If there is a signed form 8332, the "ex" spouse can still get the child tax credit for a dependent child under the age of 17, but no other child-related tax credits like earned income credit or childcare credit.

You do not say whether your friend received stimulus checks #1 or #2 while still married -- so we cannot comment on whether she should be using the 2020 recovery rebate credit to get any of that stimulus money.

[Alvin Gregorio]

Thank you very much for your detailed and informative reply.

RE "You do not say whether your friend received stimulus checks #1 or #2 while still married -- so we cannot comment on whether she should be using the 2020 recovery rebate credit to get any of that stimulus money." --xmasbaby0:
___
My friend and her then-/ex-husband stayed very amicable throughout the divorce process.  They continued to share their joint bank accounts until mid-January 2021.
The two Stimulus Relief payments-- for her, her husband, and their kids as applicable-- were direct-deposited into those joint accounts by the IRS(?), then simply shared/spent along with the other funds in the account(s), by each and both her and her husband, as they each desired.

-Alvin

[Irene2805]

Since your friend received both stimulus checks, she does not have to use the Recovery Rebate Credit on her return