Home › Civil Law › Family Law › In the state of Pennsylvania how does child support work and who gets to claim the child for taxes?
In the state of Pennsylvania how does child support work and who gets to claim the child for taxes?
If a father pays child support and pays for medical insurance and has the kid every other weekend, who gets to claim the kid for taxes? The mother because she has the child more? Or the father because he is paying the money?
the person the child resides with usually claims the child on their taxes. although the father pays support, it’s really only a contribution to the financial care of the child.
up to the parents really – most parents switch off every year to be fair.
technically, the parent deemed the “custodial” parent in the decree gets the tax break.
The parent with whom the child lives the greater part of the year claims the child. For tax purposes, that parent is called the custodial parent.
The non-custodial parent can claim the child if the custodial parent signs Form 8332. Also, if a divorce decree which contains the same information as an 8332 (and the vast majority do not) gives the exemption to the non-custodial parent the child can be claimed by that parent.
On your Federal return, the custodial parent gets the exemption. As it applies to the tax code, the custodial parent is defined by law as the one with whom the child(ren) spend the greater portion of time throughout the year even if the custody agreement or order says otherwise.
The custodial parent can surrender the exemption to the non-custodial parent by giving them a signed Form 8332 or similar written statement. The custodial parent can still file as Head of Household and claim the EIC and Additional Child Tax Credit if otherwise eligible as those do not flow to the non-custodial parent with the exemption.
If the divorce decree or custodial agreement has VERY specific language in it as mandated by Federal law — such as it is without condition such as payment of child support among other requirements — the agreement or order may give the exemption to the non-custodial parent. If the language does not meet the requirements as set out in Federal law, the IRS is required by law to ignore the decree or agreement as Federal law trumps State law and State court rulings and orders.
The amount of child support paid is irrelevant to the exemption claim or entitlement. The only support qualifier is that the child not provide more than half of their OWN support.
Bostoniaminmo is right. Print off his answer.
child support itself is not taxable nor a write off
If the mother is the custodial parent (the child is with her more) then she can claim the child unless there is a valid court order giving the exemption to the father, or the mother voluntarily signs over the exemption to the dad (she can use form 8332). It doesn’t matter that it’s PA – that is for federal tax, so the rules are the same in all states.
For PA state tax, there is no deduction for or “claiming” of children.