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Snoozy88 · Jan 28, 2009, 01:58 PM

I have a 10 month old daughter with my ex-boyfriend. He used to live with us and he paid the majority of the bills. I was a stay at home mom, except for 4 months. Who gets to claim our daughter for the taxes? We are currently going through a custody battle and I have been granted temporary full legal and physical custody.

this8384 · Jan 28, 2009, 02:47 PM

This should be spelled out in your temporary custody order.

ebaines · Jan 28, 2009, 03:46 PM

The parent who has physical custody of the child gets to claim the child as his/her dependent, regardless of who pays how much child support. The only exception would be if there is a legal agreement between you that states otherwise.

AtlantaTaxExpert · Jan 29, 2009, 11:21 AM

I must disagree with ebaines on this one.

If the boyfriend can clearly prove to the IRS that he provided more than half of the child's total support, he could legitimately claim the child's dependency exemption.

Given that he worked and solely supported the family 6 of the 10 months, I would not hesitate to claim the child's dependency exemption on his return unless the mother earned an income during her four-moth work period that is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the boyfriend's income.

Fair is fair! The boyfriend earned the money and paid the bills, so he should get the exemption.