annoyingdad

Mom2,

IRS Pub 501 has the dependency rules. Full time students under age 24 can be claimed as dependents if they don't provide more than 50% of their own support. There are special rules in the case of divorced parents. It doesn't matter which parent is providing the majority of the support or who the student lives with if there is a legal provision in the divorce papers as to who can claim the child as a dependent.

mom2collegekids

^^

I understand that. My question has to do with the following: If the dad does NOT provide ONE CENT of support for D1 after child support stops, why/how can he still claim her???

wareagleblonde

You are correct. Support for her ends at graduation as she turns 18 in March.

And again, I concede. You are correct, and I guess I just didn't see it that way. You were pretty spot on. That being said, I do not agree that he should continue to be able to claim them as dependents. I feel like he took advantage and that is a whole other thread for some other message board I'm sure! I do think my child support would be considered considerable but it was determined by the state of GA.

I would not be concerned about my daughter being able to attend Auburn debt free if my ex hadn't reneged on his original plan to defer his entire Post 9/11 GI bill to her. She applied with the understanding that this would be the case. Frustrating to say the least.

annoyingdad

Apparently you didn't understand it. I stated it doesn't matter who provides the support. As long as the parents combined provide over 50% of the support and there is a divorce agreement that the non-custodial parent can claim the dependency.

Read here starting on page 13:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

wareagleblonde

Thank you for the link and information. As I was reading, I see that there can be a revocation. Any idea if that is the case if it is in our decree?

annoyingdad

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.

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?

mom2collegekids

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.

2collegewego

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.)

wareagleblonde

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!

annoyingdad

Mom2,

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.


OP, not a lawyer, perhaps once support ends that's the end of it. Worth checking on it. Good Luck.

wareagleblonde

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!

cptofthehouse

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.

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.

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.

vballmom

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.

Here's a sample of a typical calculation of who benefits from claiming the children:

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.

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.

Here's one way to do a quick analysis:

TurboTax® TaxCaster - Free Tax Calculator - Free Tax Estimator

happymomof1

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.

wareagleblonde

Even more great info.

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!

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.