Filing Child Support Taxes
Child support can be burdening for both parties. Here is what you need to know about filing child support taxes.
Filing Child Support Taxes: Using Child Support as a Tax Deduction
People often come to me with questions about how their court orders are going to affect their taxes. It’s very important to seek both the advice of an attorney and also the advice of an accountant when you have questions about how your court orders affect your taxes. Generally, child support is not taxable or considered a tax deduction by the court and also by the IRS. Child support needs to be declared through your tax filing, but it isn’t going to be treated as a deductible to you, the payer, or as income to the party receiving the payments.
Filing Child Support Taxes: Claiming the Children on Your Taxes
I am regularly asked whether or not the parties can claim the children as dependents on taxes. It’s important to ask your questions as they relate to your divorce and your tax implications to an attorney and also to an accountant. That’s one of the issues that your attorney is going to help resolve through the divorce process, who can claim the children and in what years. If you’re not able to reach a resolution in that matter, the court does not have jurisdiction to determine that issue.
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Neither the family court nor the supreme court will be able to make that determination for you. You and the other party will have to reach a resolution of that issue between you. Generally, parties tend to agree that if there is child support being paid and if that child support is current, then both parties would be able to share the tax dependents claim. There’s a form that needs to be filled out by both parties in order to effectuate the sharing of those claims. You should definitely talk to your attorney about how to share the tax dependency, that that form is filled out with the IRS.
If you have questions about filing child support taxes, please contact our Buffalo office to schedule a free consultation today!