Help needed on Child dependency

My friends, Tim, got married last year. This is his first marriage. His wife has a son from her previous marriage and he is 8 years old. The boy started living with Tim since October 2006. Now can he claim this boy as a dependent Child? Need help.

That would depend upon his wife's divorce agreement and what she arranged with her ex-husband. I know their are rules regarding this situation but if there is an agreement between the ex-spouses then that is what he should go by.

Britneysbald is right - the divorce decree or legal separation agreement will be the governing document regarding whether your son can claim his new wife's child or not. If her ex-husband agrees to release the claim on the child to her, then she and your son can claim the child on their taxes, but there is a release form that needs to be signed by her ex and turned in with your son & his wife's tax return.

I agree...the divorce papers should say how the child is claimed on the taxes. I have 2 children that live me 100% of the time, but my ex still gets to claim 1, which is my son who is the oldest. I have my daughter. Although my husband supports my kids more than my ex and does more and takes care of them, the ex still gets to claim one. Read your decree and see what it says and go from there.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate. I am forwarding this thread to Tim, however, I think, ex of his wife does not pay child support as he does not have any income, I don't have much knowledge about the decree, I will definitely look at it.

Is there anything that says the child must stay at least 6 months with the person before claiming? Not sure.

He just needs to read his divorce decree. My ex does not see my kids (his choice) but our decree says he gets to claim my son. My kids live with me 100% of the time and he still gets to claim one on his tax return.

The way the IRS looks at is as follows:

If the child lives with you for more than 6 months out of the year, and you provide the larger percentage of the financial support of the child, and it is stated in your divorce decree that you are allowed to claim them as a dependent on your taxes, then you get to claim the child.

If there is nothing in the divorce decree stating who claims the child, then the parents of the child need to come to some agreement on who claims him/her. That's where the "6-months" rule comes in - if the child lives with you for more than 6 months, and you receive little to no financial support for the child, then according to the IRS, the claim for the dependent is yours. However, I've seen situations where parents split the claim for the child (mom claims one year, dad claims the next), regardless of the living arrangements or child support paid. But those situations are based on an agreement between the parents, or written into the divorce decree.

The IRS has several tests they use to determine dependency as has been mentioned. In your friend's case, he has failed one test in that his child did not live with him for at least 6 months of the past year.
If he provided more than half of the child's support during the past year, that is passing another IRS test.
He should definately look at his divorce decree and figure out how much he paid in child support to get a total figure of how much he paid to determine this.

This is really weird, however, it's true, Stella, ask him to go through the divorce decree.

My consolation is that this is year 2007, is the last year he gets to claim my son. I am not sure how it will go once my son graduates and gets a full time job until he goes into the AF before the end of the year. My son graduates in June and is planning on going in the AF in Sept or Oct.

2nband - I am in the same situation. I made an agreement with my ex to allow him to claim one of our sons on alternate tax years (he claims this year, I claim next year), even though both boys are living with me. What I won't agree to is him claiming both boys on alternate years, which would leave me with no dependents to claim at all on the off years. I'm willing to give up the claim on one child on alternating years, but not both.

If I had known that he was not going to be a part of my kids' lives, I would never have agreed to that. yes, he does pay his child support, what little there is of it, and has them on his insurnace and that is only because it is court ordered, but other than that, he does nothing else. My husband now does more for those kids than my ex ever did and he gripes about the money he is sending me for them! My husband works 2 jobs to help keep the kids in band and school functions, has them on his insurance (not because he has to but because he wants to), takes time off from work when they have school functions going on, etc. My ex cannot even send the kids something for their birthdays or Christmas or anything like that. Better stop because I get real aggitated when I start talking about this.

Sue ~ hopefully your ex isn't as big a jerk as mine is and wants to see his kids. It has been about 5 years since my ex has seen his kids and has not made any effort to try to see them. Will be interesting when it gets time for my son to graduate to see if he thinks he is coming here for that. My son has done said he does not want any of "that man's" family here for his graduation. Of course, that is my son's choice and I will respect it (and it doesn't break my heart one bit!) I would have respected it if he chose to invite them too, no matter how much I would have cringed, but if that was what he wanted, that is what he would have had.