<p>I’m not a lawyer so I can’t answer that question. I was a doubter too about how your ex could claim your D if not providing support, so I went to the source.</p>
<p>Not questions to be answered here, but for your own consideration, did you perhaps receive some other benefit in the settlement in exchange for allowing your ex to take the deductions? Did the decree specify a time or age limit on this?</p>
<p>I just don’t think a divorce decree can over-ride tax laws. So, if the dad isn’t providing ANY support once the D is of majority age, I don’t see how a divorce decree can mandate that he can CONTINUE to claim her on his taxes once support ENDS. I can understand that he was given that privilege while the kids were minors and he was paying substantial support for both kids.</p>
<p>mom2ck, basically, the way it’s written is that as long as EITHER or both parents are providing at least half the child’s support, the non-custodial can take the deduction if that’s what they agreed upon. (There are other guidelines-- like the kid is in custody of one or both of the parents-- but the point is that it looks at joint support as meeting the guideline for whether the child can be claimed and allows the parents to have decided that, via their divorce decree or a tax form.)</p>
<p>I did not receive any benefit from allowing him to do this. And it states he can continue to do so as long as he is current on his child support. Sounds like I will be contacting my attorney. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Mom2,</p>
<p>The decree is not overriding tax law, it’s provided for in the tax law. Are you reading the link provided? All of this discussion is getting this thread off topic.</p>
<p>OP, not a lawyer, perhaps once support ends that’s the end of it. Worth checking on it. Good Luck.</p>
<p>Very true annoyingdad. Sounds like we can be the ones providing the financials which will hopefully be more helpful to her than if her father had to. Thanks again!</p>
<p>As others have said, the issue as to who is claiming your D as a dependent is something spelled out in the divorce decree, and you will to see an attorney to find out what your chances are in having the situation change. A parent will be able to claim a college student as a dependent as long as s/he is a full time college student and of a certain age that I don’t remember but it is in their mid 20s. When the child goes to college, an additional tax issue arises in that there are tax credit/deductions involved with payment of tuition and interest in any loans taken, and that complicates the situation, so you do need to see an attorney and ask how that will work out, especially if your ex is not paying any more child support, not paying tuition and how the GI Bill proceeds work in all of this.</p>
<p>Most state schools, Auburn included, do not meet full need, so even if your DD comes up with a small Expected Family Contribution (EFC), that does not mean that is all you are going to pay, even in state. As a general rule, the higher your child’s test scores and to some extent, grades, the better the chances are that a greater portion of need will be met. Also merit awards may come into play if your child is a top student. Otherwise, most of the money comes from self help unless your state has a program that helps out with the tuition with grants, like Georgia, Florida, WV, NY, CA do. or unless your Family is Pell eligible, which is very low income. You should run a sample FAFSA and see what your EFC is, approximately. Your DD will be permitted to borrow up to $5500 on her own through the Direct Loan program, might get some work study funds as well. But any grants will come from Auburn’s coffers and there is never enough to meet all need. </p>
<p>But, seriously, the tax issues have to be addressed by a lawyer familiar with divorce provisions and how they work, not by this board as they can vary by state and by the wording of the decrees.</p>
<p>As stated several times in this thread, the divorce decree isn’t overriding any tax laws. I mentioned in post 11 that it’s very common for a settlement agreement to stipulate who claims the children on their taxes.</p>
<p>Here’s a sample of a typical calculation of who benefits from claiming the children:</p>
<p>If the father makes $100K and the custodial mother makes $50K, filing as head of household will save the father approx $2000 on his taxes compared to filing as single. If the mother claims the children it will only save the mother approx $1000 on her taxes, compared to filing as single. This is with all other things being equal, and I do realize the mother is remarried but this is just a simple example. So the value of having the father claim the children as dependents is that the entire family saves a net $1000 on their taxes. What happens to this windfall for the father? Perhaps he pays a more generous amount in child support, perhaps he keeps it and vacations in Tahiti. Presumably this was all considered during the divorce negotiations when assets were divided up and child support was being calculated.</p>
<p>All is not lost for the OP however, as it only takes one dependent to allow the father to file as head of household, and the OP mentions she has two daughters from this marriage. Perhaps a better negotiating position at this point, well after the fact of the divorce, is to ask the father to only claim one of the children and the OP can claim the other. This is more of a tax issue than a FAFSA one, and the OP should run the numbers to see if having an additional dependent will be worth the cost (emotional and $$s) to her of re-opening the divorce settlement.</p>
<p>Here’s one way to do a quick analysis:</p>
<p>[TurboTax®</a> TaxCaster - Free Tax Calculator - Free Tax Estimator](<a href=“http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/]TurboTax®”>Tax Calculator - Refund & Return Estimator 2022-2023 | TurboTax® Official)</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, if keeping the daughters as his tax dependence is what it takes to have him help with the college expenses, I would just leave them on his returns until they are out of college and on their own.</p>
<p>Even more great info.</p>
<p>vballmom, I will definitely look into us each being able to claim a child. And honestly nothing was considered during “negotiations.” I agreed to things that I should not have, and didn’t push for other things that I had a legal right to…in other words, I didn’t take him to the cleaners.Thank you for your valuable input!</p>
<p>happymomof1, he is only willing to defer partial GI bill benefits for the girls with no additional financial help for college regardless of the tax dependence or his ability to fully fund the balance after said benefits are applied. Again, this is a complete 180 from his original plans.</p>
<p>*I did not receive any benefit from allowing him to do this. And it states he can continue to do so as long as he is current on his child support. Sounds like I will be contacting my attorney. Thanks so much!
*</p>
<p>Ok…so once he’s no longer paying any child support for Daughter number one, he can NO LONGER claim her. He can claim Daughter number two at that point, but not Daughter number one. So, at that point, YOU can claim her.</p>
<p>Paying child support for the younger D doesn’t give him the right to claim for older D. So, when does support for older D stop? at high school graduation???</p>
<p>the divorce decree isn’t overriding any tax laws</p>
<p>Right…because he can ONLY claim them while he’s paying support as the decree states. But, if he were to continue to claim Daughter Number One after he stopped paying for HER support, then he would be violating the tax laws AND his divorce decree wouldn’t offer any cover.</p>
<p>The sticky part of this whole thing is that there are additional tax benefits that occur when one has a child in college. Though it seems to be obvious that the one paying for the college should get the deduction/credit, throw in a GI Bill and it becomes complicated. I don’t know tax law or divorce law, and as I said before, the states involved and the original agreements could be the determining factors in this situation, so, an attorney is required. Right now I don’t see how the OP can get tax credit or deductions for having a child in college even if she is paying for all of it and the ex is not since the child is not listed as a dependent on the tax return. Dad would be able to claim this even if he is not paying it, is the way I see it. And with that GI Bill benefit, who knows how that works. An attorney should advise the OP.</p>
<p>m2ck, the child support ends at 18 or HS graduation whichever occurs last.</p>
<p>And I will definitely be discussing this with my attorney!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s a legal interpretation neither of us is qualified to make. If one has paid support up to when it legally ends, they could still be considered “current” on child support after it ends.</p>
<p>^^
That would be a ridiculous interpretation. If that held, then the dad could insist that he has a right to claim his adult child forever…even if she were to never go to college, work full-time, and be completely self-supporting…or marry at age 19 and be someone else’s dependent.</p>
<p>There definitely needs to be some clarification made in the decree. I just wish I had the sense enough then to stand my ground. I am now more determined than ever to be proactive and get this changed. Thank you all again for your advice/input.</p>
<p>Mom2, no he couldn’t insist on those things. They would be in violation of tax law.</p>
<p>Right. Which is why logically, once he stops providing support for D1, he shouldn’t be claiming her anymore. A sticking part would be the last year if he provides support for part of the year. </p>
<p>Another sticking part, since he’s providing GI Bill for years 1 and 2, would that “count” as providing support for those 2 years?</p>
<p>Mom2 you seem to be stuck on seeing this the way you think is right as opposed to what the tax law says. If the child is under age 24 at the end of the tax year, is a full time student, and does not provide more than 50% of her own support, she can be claimed as a qualifying dependent on one of her parent’s taxes. Which parent claims the child on his or her taxes has nothing to do with how much support that parent does or does not provide. In the OP’s case, the ability to claim the child as a dependent for tax purposes was part of the divorce settlement. If the agreement is to be changed, as the OP currently desires, it must be renegotiated according to state divorce laws, not Federal tax laws.</p>
<p>mom2ck, It’s not that simple. They really do need to negotiate it out. If the decree gives him a right, she needs to get the ex to agree or talk to an attorney before she declares one of the kids a dependent. Again, tax law allows him to declare the children even if he’s not paying a red cent towards them as long as the parents together are providing support. As a matter of fact, on that link provided, it says that a post-2008 decree must not include a condition that the parent be paying child support: </p>
<p>“The form or statement must release the custodial parent’s claim to the child without any conditions. For example, the release must not depend on the noncustodial parent paying support.”</p>
<p>wareagleblonde, didn’t you have an attorney? I don’t understand how you say it wasn’t considered when it’s part of the decree. You may not have taken him to the cleaners but a divorce agreement is a negotiated agreement. It sounds like the GI benefits were not even part of the agreement. I think it’s a good idea to split up the kids. Perhaps you can convince him by pointing out the additional tax deductions for college costs?</p>