3. No. She only claimed that their daughter lived with her for 5 months out of the year, and he put 7 months so that he could claim her since it's his year. If I remove all child care expenses from his return for the year, the efile should go through.

 

Probably be less of a headache for him to simple remove it, file without any child care expenses and then have her cut him a check for the $ he would've gotten back had she not claimed the expenses, right?

 

Its possible that could work, I would say that would depend on how much of a tax impact the child care expenses create, and if the ex is willing to cut over said check (dont know how well that relationship is.)

 

I would possibly be concerned with the system rejecting his return because it has already been rejected once. I know back at my old firm we had that issue sometimes.

Let's say he just decides to not claim the daycare expenses....Why would he have to paper file?

 

He would only have to paper file if he wants to claim that deduction.

 

I would agree with @lawildcat on this one.

That's what I figured...Probably be easiest to just do that and try to get her to write him a check for what he would've gotten otherwise. Let her deal with the IRS when the question why she took a credit she wasn't entitled to.

 

They may or may not even catch it.

@plantmanky & @lawildcat....Thanks for the advice and assistance!

You may be right. It's my understanding that only the parent claiming the child as a dependent is allowed to take the deduction. :idunno: This is why I hate taxes and got out of public accounting. :lol2:

 

I dont hate taxes per say, (I actually like corporate taxes better, but I'm weird so...) It always drove me nuts the stupid things business owners would try to get away with and want you to sign off with doing on their tax returns.

You may be right. It's my understanding that only the parent claiming the child as a dependent is allowed to take the deduction. :idunno: This is why I hate taxes and got out of public accounting. :lol2:

 

The IRS is never going to know which parent is eligible to claim the deduction unless documents are filed with them.

@plantmanky & @lawildcat....Thanks for the advice and assistance!

 

Any time man, @Watusi if you see these and we are off speak up, if you ever get out of your office, lol.

The IRS is never going to know which parent is eligible to claim the deduction unless documents are filed with them.

 

I always told clients that recently got divorced to attached the divorce decree stating what years who got to claim which kid in the first return upon divorce just so they had the record. Not that would stop issues from arising when the wrong one claimed the wrong year, but if the IRS had it on file, its seemed to resolve the issue quicker.