Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

Re: filing status

Absent some agreement by the parties or order from the judge, whoever has the kids most of the time (the "cusodial" or primary residential parent) gets to take the deduction, or at leat that's the law.

In reality, the IRS will accept the deduction for whoever files first, then deny and adjust the refund when they see the same dependents' social security numbers when another return comes in. So, in other words, regardless of the law, to the IRS, it's just whoever wins the filing race.