[armycarter]

I currently pay child support for my daughter. I have been told by several of my friends that her mother and I should take turns claiming her on our taxes. Basically every other year. Is this a common practice and how do I go about getting this established?

[ebaines]

The custodial parent is the one who had rights to claim the child as a dependent. Even though you pay child suppport, you may not claim the child as your dependent unless her mother agrees to it, or unless you have a court order that specifies it. But this type of arrangement can be negotiated by the parents. If one is in a higher tax bracket than the other you may be able to work out some sort of "win-win" arrangement. Consider: since the deduction reduces your taxable income by $3650, if you are in the 25% tax bracket and your ex is in the 10% bracket that means the deduction is worth about $550 more to you than it is to her. So you can see there might be room to negotiate with her on it.