Legal Question in Family Law in California

my x of 10 yrs has been claiming all three daughters in his taxes and I have not been able to. my youngest is 18 and going to school full time and wondered if I could start claiming her until the age of 23? he has a great job, has claimed all three girls for the last 10 yrs and has a two home income on top of that. I am a single mother that does not earn a whole lot. child support has stopped and my hours have been cut quite a bit. I feel if I can claim my youngest, it will help me out for the next few years at least. Our lawyers 10 yrs ago told me if I dont let him claim all three girls then my child support would have been alot less and at the time I was not working. would I have to take him back to court to change all this?

thank you

Pam


Asked on 2/11/10, 7:03 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Cristin Lowe Law Office of Cristin M. Lowe

Pam,

Child support is based on you and your ex-husband's net incomes, as well as timeshare. Your lawyer was correct to advise you to allow your ex-husband to claim your daughters, since the dependency exemptions raised his net income and did nothing for yours, as you didn't work at the time.

Now that your youngest is 18 and I'm assuming in college (since if she was a senior now, he would still be obligated for child support), so long as your daughter is living with you and being supported by you, it's appropriate for you to claim her. However, if her father is paying for her college, it's also perfectly acceptable for him to claim her as well. The Court orders actually will be silent on this issue, since she has reached the age of majority and it would do you no good to take him back to Court on this, as the Court no longer has jurisdiction over your daughter.

I hope that it is possible for you to talk to your ex-husband about this issue and resolve it. The last thing you want is for both of you to claim her and then be audited.

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Answered on 2/16/10, 9:29 am


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