H&W Splitting the Difference

[Snaggletooth]

You'll love this one, if you can deal with it.

Tennessee judge is aware he can no longer determine custody or dependency. So he designates 182.5 days in each household to absolve himself of any custody issues. However, in the divorce decree he acknowledges that he can't control these qualifiers for dependency or head/household, but he issues an order that forces the parties to "split the difference 50-50" of the tax benefit. I believe he can do that, as he is not tampering with any IRS rules.

Sooooo, father gets a $3,434 benefit by claiming, and mother gets a $2,238 by claiming. So father claims the benefit, but how much does he have to pay mother for losing her refund (assuming the judge's order is valid)?

[spanel]

You'll love this one, if you can deal with it.

Tennessee judge is aware he can no longer determine custody or dependency. So he designates 182.5 days in each household to absolve himself of any custody issues. However, in the divorce decree he acknowledges that he can't control these qualifiers for dependency or head/household, but he issues an order that forces the parties to "split the difference 50-50" of the tax benefit. I believe he can do that, as he is not tampering with any IRS rules.

Sooooo, father gets a $3,434 benefit by claiming, and mother gets a $2,238 by claiming. So father claims the benefit, but how much does he have to pay mother for losing her refund (assuming the judge's order is valid)?

My vote is thats their attorneys problem. File the return as you normally would. As far as figuring out what percentage is who's... I would say, my job ends when you file your return and I dont get involved in divvying out refunds.

Chris

[Gretel]

You'll love this one, if you can deal with it.

Tennessee judge is aware he can no longer determine custody or dependency. So he designates 182.5 days in each household to absolve himself of any custody issues. However, in the divorce decree he acknowledges that he can't control these qualifiers for dependency or head/household, but he issues an order that forces the parties to "split the difference 50-50" of the tax benefit. I believe he can do that, as he is not tampering with any IRS rules.

Sooooo, father gets a $3,434 benefit by claiming, and mother gets a $2,238 by claiming. So father claims the benefit, but how much does he have to pay mother for losing her refund (assuming the judge's order is valid)?

How interesting. Two things. I believe the real life custody goes by nights spend not by days, making it one clear winner. However, if parents want to split the difference two more numbers need to be know (unless your numbers are already showing the real tax benefit). Refund with and without claiming the dependent for each parent. Let's assume the $3,434 represents the tax refund for claiming dependent, then I believe half of this amount goes to other parent.

[RitaB]

I've heard it all now

Sooooo, father gets a $3,434 benefit by claiming, and mother gets a $2,238 by claiming. So father claims the benefit, but how much does he have to pay mother for losing her refund (assuming the judge's order is valid)?

This is not going to work like Judge thinks. I guess dad needs to give mom 1,717. That way Junior made them both 1,717. What a sad place our world is in.

My vote is thats their attorneys problem. File the return as you normally would. As far as figuring out what percentage is who's... I would say, my job ends when you file your return and I dont get involved in divvying out refunds.

Chris

But the attorney will charge 3.3 dog hours three years from now (meaning he spent 0.1 human hours thinking about it) and still miss it. The kid may be emancipated by then, too.


Edit: I agree with Gretel, you type faster than I think.

[Gretel]

My vote is thats their attorneys problem. File the return as you normally would. As far as figuring out what percentage is who's... I would say, my job ends when you file your return and I dont get involved in divvying out refunds.

Chris

How helpful is this to your client or to Snag? We all have our sad stories with attorneys and other professionals including our own colleges but I believe I still need to focus on helping my client - if I can.

[taxea]

IRS rule trumps court action...I would follow IRS rule and let them figure out who gets what, when, and how.

[Snaggletooth]

Liability for this

My vote is thats their attorneys problem. File the return as you normally would. As far as figuring out what percentage is who's... I would say, my job ends when you file your return and I dont get involved in divvying out refunds. Chris

Spanel is exactly right. We can turn our backs and absolve ourselves of any responsibility for this and leave it to the lawyers to slug it out. More time...more fees...more lawyers to call me, etc. etc. etc. That's why in the real world you help your clients get from A to B as quick and clean as possible. I always make sure I place a disclaimer on any communication regarding this. Then if they have any questions, they can slug it out among all the aforementioned.

[Snaggletooth]

The Calculation

...as I see it. Thanks to all responders, some of them were adamant that they wouldn't be sucked into this mess.

We have two respondents choosing $1,717 - half of the father's benefit. It's possible this is what the judge meant.

Also possible is to split the benefit:
Father's benefit is $3434 - half of this is $1,717.
Mother's benefit is $2238 - half of this is $1,119.
Splitting the benefit is the average of the two values above, or $1,418.

Good conversation. Thanks.

[RitaB]

Judges are not always good mathematicians

...as I see it. Thanks to all responders, some of them were adamant that they wouldn't be sucked into this mess.

We have two respondents choosing $1,717 - half of the father's benefit. It's possible this is what the judge meant.

Also possible is to split the benefit:
Father's benefit is $3434 - half of this is $1,717.
Mother's benefit is $2238 - half of this is $1,119.
Splitting the benefit is the average of the two values above, or $1,418.

Good conversation. Thanks.

Also, literally, the difference is 3434 - 2238 = 1,196. Splitting it could be anything. Splitting it equally would be 598. I don't think Judge knew what he meant. I would go with logic, have H give W half his Junior refund amount to W, because it can be explained to a civilian. Sorta. There is no justice. Really, there's not.

In your example, there is also obviously EIC involved. Judge saying where kid stays means nothing to IRS. And means nothing to us as the police of EIC. There's that. And another reason I hate EIC.