Harlan Lunsford wrote:
- quote -

You have to look at different tax court decisions to obtain a
thorough answer but it appears the following criteria is a must:

1. The custodial parent must have signed the divorce decree.
This may seem obvious but it is not. In one court case a
woman's attorney had signed the decree and the woman had
not signed it. Not acceptable!
2. The specific child must be identified.
3. The year or years in question must be identified. This
could be "all years."

Finally, the 8332 requires the SS# of the spouse. That's not
a requirement of the divorce decree.

--
Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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William P Brown wrote:
- quote -

Alan mentioned this also, viz that the divorce decree be
worded correctly.

Pray give us some comment on what might or might not pass
muster.

Cheer$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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Traci wrote:

- quote -

To take the child/dependent care credit, the day care
payments must be made so the taxpayer (and his/her spouse,
if married) can work, look for work, or be a full time
student. Since your husband can work whether his kids get
day care or not, he doesn't qualify for the credit. Only the
custodial parent who makes such payments will get a credit.

- quote -

Yes, it is true. She's the one who needs day care for the
kids in order to work and she's the one writing the checks
to the day care provider.

- quote -

If the divorce decree is worded property, it serves as a
substitute Form 8332.

Regards,
Bill
~~~~
Associate Professor of Accounting
College of Business & Economics
Longwood University
http://www.longwood.edu/staff/wpbrown

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Traci wrote:

- quote -

Correct. No child care expense for y'll, but his 62% is
deemed to have been paid by her, therefore she gets the
credit on the 100%.

- quote -

Yes, you can efile again. Simply attach copy of divorce
decree with the exemption agreement with the form 8453.

Cheer$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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Traci wrote:

- quote -

You and your spouse are not eligible for the Child &
Dependent Care Credit because your husband's ex-spouse had
custody of the child for more than half the year. It doesn't
matter how much your husband pays for day-care.

Relative to the dependency exemption, it is also quite
possible that the wording in the divorce decree does not
conform to the language required by tax law. That language
is in Form 8332. If the divorce papers do not conform, then
the former spouse would have to provide a signed Form 8332
releasing the exemption to your husband. Basically, there
must be a statement that adequately identifies the minor
child, identifies the year(s) in which the exemption is
released and it is signed by the custodial parent. The
noncustodial parent then attaches the requisite document to
the tax return claiming the exemption.

--
Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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My Husband is divorced, within their divorce it states that
he is allowed to claim one child on his taxes, while she is
allowed to claim the other one (they both live with her).
It also states that he is to pay 62% of all day care,
medical, dental etc. They've been divorced since 2001.
He's never had a problem e-filing taxes before, we claimed
62% of the total amt paid to day care, until this year ..
the IRS says we can not claim our 62% of the day care
expenses and also requested a copy of the divorce decree ..
(there is no day care expense for the child she's allowed to
claim)

Is this true that even though she only pays 38% of the total
day care (we reimburse her for the 62%) she is allowed to
claim all of it? Sure doesn't seem fair if that's what they
do ...

Also, in reading some information on the IRS.gov site, it
says that a form 8332 has to be sent in with the return each
year, however the IRS agent our tax person talked with said
to send in the divoce decree? Which is it? Will we ever be
able to efile again?

Please help me understand this.... THANK YOU!

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