What happens when a parent claims their child on their taxes, but the child does not live with them?

My ex claimed our daughter on his taxes. He did not pay child support last year (there was no order) barely sees her, and i have custody. He did not have permission, and i am claiming her. What happens when i send in my taxes? Does he go to jail?What happens when a parent claims their child on their taxes, but the child does not live with them?
Its a hefty fine. The only time the IRS imposes jail terms is if the unreported amount is in the millions $$. One case I remember that had been a case precedent, was the tax evasion trial and conviction of Al Capone in 1931.What happens when a parent claims their child on their taxes, but the child does not live with them?
no, he does not go to jail.


you will get a paper that says somebody else claimed her. you need to READ the info, and send your proof back that the child lives with you - they will then make him pay it back - and you will get your money
Grrr. This makes me angry because my ex did the same thing! It's such a pain in the butt and you know they won't follow through and it will be up to you. The first answer was spot on. I hope he figures it out.
The double use of your child's social security number will more than likely flag the irs.
The kid's SSN will cause both returns to bounce. You may both be asked to provide proof of the extent of support you provided for your child - that means receipts, cleared check copies, etc.


Whoever shows up with the most proof gets the deduction, regardless of the justice of the situation. So keep all those receipts.


Your daycare, pharmacy, and credit card companies can give you a yearly total.
most likely nothing unless both parents claim the kid. whoever has legal rights to the child is the one that is first in line to claim it on taxes
Yep.He will got jail unless he pays the money back.Unless the state allows him to do this, some allow both to claim children.
There will be an audit, and most likely, he will be charged for the full amount of his taxes--and a few other things will probably be discovered that he screwed up on. It's possible that he could be fined, or assessed additional taxes, but unlikely--he can always claim that the form confused him, which is very common with taxes.





The child is clearly your dependent in this situation, not his, and even when support is shared, only one parent can claim the child on their taxes. You don't have anything big to worry about with claiming your daughter.





Keep in mind that BOTH of you will probably be audited. Be sure to keep your tax papers in order! You can also contact the local IRS office (numbers found on irs.gov) and report him; this could help hold off the audit on your taxes while getting her off of his.





Notably, the main tie-breaking rule used by the IRS is who the child spent the most time with over the year. Someone had to have the child living with them for 6 months and 1 day at least. As you've said, he barely sees your daughter, so it's very clear and obvious that you get the right to claim her as a dependent.
It will come up at IRS when the same social security number is claimed two times so you will probably get a notice since the child was already claimed. You'll have to take him to court or something, I would contact a family lawyer or the IRS, I'm not sure.
When the IRS asks for records, just show them the bills you paid for her. If he can't prove he spent over 50% of her costs his claim will be denied and he will have to pay the extra tax.
Report him to the IRS. This is illegal. He will be forced to repay what he has unjustly gained from his false claims.
he might get fined
Assuming as you have ';custody'; and you refer to your husband as the ';ex'; that your divorce is final. If so, it is most common that as you were given custody, you were also provided a written right in your divorce decree that you are able to claim your daughter as your dependent on your taxes. If so, nothing else matters......you get her unless you voluntarily give him the right to take her and agree to complete the IRS form that allows him to use her as a dependent. Depending on income and if there is only one child to share, sometimes it makes sense to get along and share a larger refund amount by allowing the parent that has a low earned income......less than $13,000..... to claim an only child due to the ';earned income credit'; which is like a gift from the government. Depending on the income amount the credit could increase the refund by $1,500 to $2,300. If he has taken her already, then both of you will get a notice from the IRS but not right away. The IRS is normally very slow with this, similar to what happens if a child works and you claim her and the child claims herself. The notice usually comes months after you both already get the refunds you requested on your tax return. If he has broken the divorce decree order and you send a copy in, then he will be required to pay the amount back that was received due to him taking her plus interest on the amount. However, he will most likely not be audited on anything else on his return.....nor will he have to pay any penalty if he simply states he thought it was ok for him to take her or says he didnt think you would claim her as a dependent. Last advice is to see the attorney that is handling things for you or if it is a matter of money, seek the advice of the legal aid office in your city. Their advice is normally free. As he is not providing child support because there is no order, then just in case you are not married, I suggest you see the friend of the court in your county court house. They will validate he is the father, however some juristicions require you at least are filing for divorce (if still married) before they begin discovery to determine the amount he is to pay you weekly. You may be able to go back to when he left the house. If you were never married, then all you have to prove is he is the biological father and you can easily get child support from him until your daughter reaches age 18 or graduates from HS.....whichever comes last. Without a court order stating who is able to claim your daughter, then the support tests written by the IRS will control this and it will take a carefully worded letter showing she lived with you more than six months and you provided for more than 50% of her support. If so, then you win. Hope this helps.
Call the IRS. Then paper file. You will get your money, and eventually they will audit him. Then he has to pay it back. If you file for child support he won't be able to do that again.
I know this for sure it happened to me and my husband, his mom calmed him and they said the only way she can is if he lived with her or paid their health insurance for 6months, she did not do any, so we called the IRS and they did it we got our money but it took like 3-5months.
discuss this with your CPA -especially if both parents are claiming the exemption.
A few years ago my sister and her boyfriend had a miscommunication and they both claimed their kids on their income taxes. Once the error was found they send her a letter saying she had to pay back the money. Because he filed first he got the money. When she didn't pay it they took all her income taxes the next two years.
no he wont go to jail but he will be paying it back and he will half to pay the interest and penalties too but when you send in your taxes they will send you a paper from the irs asking you if you made a mistake you call and say no tell them what happened and they will nail him for it just went through that with my ex so your okay as long as you know your in the right on claiming her good luck
He gets audited, and then he has to explaine the reason, as to why he did that!!





Good Luck for him!!
Chances are he will be audited and he MAY get busted for tax fraud, but that's not likely.
most likely there will be an audit and they investagate his finicals to make sure he has the right to claim her. if they feel that he shouldn't have he will have to pay that money back or go to jail
i don't think he'll go to jail for it but he'll have to pay back any taxes he earned by claiming her. you should get a child support order and then he definitely won't be able to claim her on his taxes and he wouldn't try because with that court order he will understand he can't. but whoever files their taxes first irs will accept that return and refuse the last one filed claiming the same dependent. Now you will have to go to a irs office and inform them of the problem so that it won't happen again because they will be aware of the situation. And since he's that insensitive about you and your daughter's financial well being. go and get your support order from the court and make him aware that no one can take all the time without giving something back.
somebody is going to jail