Can a ex claim a 20 yr old child on his tax return even thought the son is self supporting and filed his own?

Question

Can a ex claim a 20 yr old child on his tax return even thought the son is self supporting and filed his own?

Answer 1

No, since the son is self supporting, the son gets his own exemption.  Nobody can claim him.  He should file his return claiming himself, and the IRS will investigate to see who is legally entitled to the exemption - if someone claimed him that legally can't, they'll have to pay back whatever they got from claiming him, plus penalties and interest.

Answer 2

Nope.  If the son claims his own exemption, as he should since he is supporting himself, and the ex claims him as a dependent, the IRS will send letters to both of them asking them why they each claimed his exemption.  The one who ends up not getting the exemption for the son (the ex in this case) will have to pay back part of his refund.

If this was for 2007 and both parties filed on time, the letters would have happened by now.  So if they filed that way, everybody got their refunds, and nobody got letters, the son must NOT have claimed himself.

Answer 3

Not legally.  However if he/she did claim your son before your son filed he/she would have received the tax credit/refund.  Call the I.R.S. if you want to get this fixed.

Answer 4

He could possibly be filing for back taxes that he may not have filed for in previous years.

Answer 5

NOT enough info to fully answer. . . . . .

He can create problems for son and himself.

If son is self-supporting, and not a fulltime student for at least 5 months, he has no right to claim him.

If Ex filed first, then son's return will be rejected and he will have to file a paper return and then Ex's return will be rejected

Son should be able to fix the problem fairly easily

Answer 6

After the age of 18 a child can still be claimed if they are living at home and still going to school. Only for a deduction and not for any additional credits. If the child is filing their own return then the mother/father can not claim them. When they file their return it will throw up a red flag at the IRS and the ex will be penalized.

Answer 7

Generally no.  While the potential dependency relationship between a step-child and step-parent isn't torn by divorce, the standard rules still apply for claiming a child as a dependent.  Since the son is 19 or older and apparently not a full-time student he can no longer be claimed under the Qualifying Child rule.  That would leave the Qualifying Relative rule which requires that the child's income be less than the personal exemption amount ($3,400 for 2007) and have received more than 50% of his support from the parent (or other person) claiming them as a dependent.

From the minimal amount of information given, it would not appear that he can be claimed as a dependent by anyone.

If anyone improperly claimed him as a dependent he'd have to file a paper return to claim his personal exemption.  This would trigger an automatic investigation by the IRS who would settle the issue according to the law and the proof presented by the child and the person making the claim.  The son would win that one and the parent would receive a bill from the IRS for any back taxes owed due to the loss of the exemption claim.