[roxxx05]

Hi, I really need to know if there's a way to find out how many times my son was claimed as a dependent by one of my husband`s relative. The thing is that we live in mexico and my husband's cousin asked him if he could let her use my son's papers so she could claim him as a dependent. My husband let her use the papers, he sent them to her but we were separated when they did that,they did it without my permission. He told me that she said she was going to send my son some money each time she claimed her taxes, but when she received the papers she said that they didn`t work, that they were no good and that she couln`t use them at all.but it results now that I've been imformed by a family member of her's that works where she does and rents in the same house as her, that she`s been claiming my son as a dependent up until now after almost 6 years. It was like 6 years ago when my husband sent the papers... so what can I do or is there a way to know how many times she claimed my son because I don't think it`s fair she's making money out of my son`s papers and he's not receiving a single dime out of those benefits that she's getting. Please help me figure this out!!

[ebaines]

I assume that because you live in Mexico you yourself do not file a US tax return or pay any US income taxes - is that right? So you haven't lost anything here. Your husband's cousin is clearly doing something that is illegal, and it sounds like you want your son to get a cut of the action - in other words, to benefit from the cousin's illegal activity. Is that what you mean?

First, you can not find out who has claimed your son as a dependent, at least not from the IRS. If you (or your husband) had to file US income tax you would want to claim your son as your own dependent, and in that case if the cousin was improperly claiming him the IRS would investigate to see who is actually entitled, and your cousin may very well end up owing additional taxes, interest, and perhaps penalties for misrepresentatation. But since you don't file my advice is to either (a) ignore this whole thing, or (b) notify the IRS that you believe someone is cheating the system. I would not recommend black mailing the cousin for a pay off.