I have a question on taxes

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Last year DH and BM decided they would take turns claiming SD. BM had last year, this year it was our turn. Well, this summer she decided to raise hell and threaten court, her stipulation being she claims SD every year. We decided to let her win this battle because it would cost us more in court costs than what we would get back in taxes for claiming SD. Here is my question though-  we pay for 50% of her childcare costs -since we are not claiming SD are we SOL on getting a credit for the childcare we paid? It doesn't seem fair to not be able to but I don't know how you could claim childcare expense if you are not claiming the child. Does anybody know the answer on this?

ARuss

Sorry, I don't know if you can claim the childcare expenses without claiming the child.  Could you ask to claim SD and split what you get back in taxes for her?  That's what DH and BM do with my SD.  That way you can claim her and claim the childcare, and BM still gets money back.  Say you'll put it in writting? 

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

We used to do the split thing, but she decided that was just not good enough- she wants to claim her every year!

MimiUVIbride

I don't think you'll be able to claim any of the child care costs.  You should maybe have the CO amended to state that you guys will alternate claiming your SD.  We pay half of care and health costs and DH cannot claim any of that.  It sucks.

J+R

I posted something similar to this awhile ago... Apparently there is a part on the tax form that is for nondependant children and where you can put things like healthcare, etc. on there.

Karma1969

YOu can't claim child care without claiming the child.

 

You can take her to small claims court though if you really wanted to fight it.

J+R

Taagent had a post (I just looked it up but I didnt know how to get it into here..)  It said "YAY we get to claim SD!"  Look at that post, it had a lot of good info.  One part of it said:

 

There is a nondependent child section on the taxes.  We provide insurance etc so I would think we would have the right to claim those things

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

I thought you could only claim on  non-dependant child if the child was not being claimed as a dependant on anyone else's taxes.

J+R

I'm not sure of the logistics of it... Sorry

MrsBPO

I tried to do a search for non-dependent deductions at IRS.gov (even searched an overbroad boolean "non-dependent" without trailers) and only came up with a couple irrelevant sections.  I also looked at my 1040 to see if there was a place to incorporate non-dependent expenses and didn't see such.  It would no doubt be a separate form and I didn't have the urge to search through each individual form to find "non-dependent expenses."

So, I called and talked with someone at the IRS, who directed me to pages 30-32 of IRS Publication 17.  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf

From what I gathered from him, you cannot claim deductions for non-dependent care.  But he wasn't 100% sure either.  He suggested you read pages 30-32 in particular, and do the test at the link in page 30 for Divorced or Separated Parents.  Don't know if this helps any.  But at least I tried. You all got me curious. 

J+R

Haha, it's okay!! I was curious too Thanks for looking into it! I dont think that we were going to try and claim for the dental/vision, etc.  because really - how much would we honestly get (a few bucks?) so instead of risking getting audited or something... But for something big like medical, it may be worth looking into!!

Thanks for checking into it!!

SUwife

Part of the NYS portion lets you mention children not living with you. I don't remember the specifics because last year we did not pay child care (BM stays home) or insurance since her husband was military so no copays and everything free. This year we have the insurance so I'll have to look at it closely when I do it. We did get an extra $15 from NYS for inputting her.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Well I read page 30 and it looks like it is a bg fat NO. It says that you can take turns claiming the dependant (the non-custodial parent needs to submit a special form) but credits cannot be split for a dependant. So if BM claims SD and gets EIC, child tax credit etc we can not claim child care credit -aka split the credits. Yet another way to get a big fat screw you by the system, yay!!!

SUwife

But make sure you get your $15 from NYS!