Can my ex-husband claim my daughter on taxes if I have primary physical custody, she has never lived with him, he doesn't pay or attempt to pay any child support. Point is, he claimed he without my permission anyway. We are divorced and he isn't even paying the agreed child support. He already got the money back from claiming her, and bought a new cell phone and other things, but no money for my daughter. I am fed up, and would like to know what to do. The problem is, even if I try to take him to court, I deploy next month to afghanistan, how can I proceed punishment against him from overseas?

What does your court order say? That should have addressed not only who gets to claim the child, but also the child support. You having primary physical custody has nothing to do with who gets to claim the child; I have a friend whose deadbeat ex-husband never sees either of their children, yet he's allowed to claim both of them on his tax return.

If he is in arrears on support, then his tax refund should be getting intercepted - that is, if he was ordered to pay support to begin with.

If you think that you are the one who can claim the dependent, then file your tax return and claim the dependent. It you are unable to efile, then send paper return. IRS with then contact both of your and figure out who must amend the tax return and pay the tax due with interest and penalty.

Only custodial parent can claim the child. It does not count who is paying child support. Also, non-custodial parent can claim the child only if the custodial parent signs a release Form 8863 or there is a court order meeting the IRS requirements. Who can claim the child if the parents are divorced, separated or unmarried,
Read: Your U.S. Tax Return: Child of separated or divorced parents (http://taxipay.blogspot.com/2008/03/child-of-separated-or-divorced-parents.html)

Mukata is correct, but to address your suggestion about taking your ex to court - you do not need to pursue anything with the court, at least not over the issue of claiming your child as a dependent. File your taxes and claim your child as your dependent as usual and let the and IRS handle it. However, you can expect some mail from the IRS as they try to straighten this out over the next year - do you have any issues with correpsondence from afghanistan?