My Divorce Decree States That I Can Claim the Children For Tax Purposes, What Happens If She Claims Them?
If your divorce decrees gives you the right to claim your children as deductions, it simultaneously denies your ex-wife the right to claim them.
In this Divorced Fathers Rights guide explains how to proceed if your spouse claims the kids on their taxes if you were supposed to.
Your Right to Claim your Children on your Taxes
If your divorce decrees gives you the freedom to claim the kids as deductions on your taxes, you should go ahead and do it. In reality, it doesn’t matter what your ex-wife does. You’ve got the legal right to do it.
Even if your ex-wife were to file first and tell you, “I claimed the kids, so you better not or you’ll be audited or fined,” it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t have the legal right to claim them. You should file your taxes in compliance with the divorce decree. Knowing today’s IRS, it might miss the discrepancy completely and accept both tax returns, giving you both the tax advantages of claiming them. This isn’t a suggestion; it’s simply a fact based on the lack of resources the IRS has to cross-check information like this.
Regardless of what your wife does, you should claim the kids and file your taxes. If the IRS does catch it and assumes you were in the wrong, they’ll contact you. Faxing or mailing a copy of the divorce decree to the IRS would settle the matter – for you, anyway.
Consequences for Claiming Kids on Taxes Illegally
Your wife will face consequences if she claims the kids illegally and is caught doing it. The consequences will likely be that she has to adjust her taxes and possibly pay interest on the amount she underpaid. It is unlikely that there would be a fine or prosecution of any type. Her excuse would be, “Oh, I forgot,” or “I didn’t know that.”
It might result in a full audit in which the IRS could go back several years and look for errors in her taxes. Things can usually be found, resulting in more payments, interest added and possible fines. So, if your wife takes the risk of claiming the children on her taxes illegally, she may face significant consequences.
If your ex-wife tells you she’s planning to do it because she doesn’t think the IRS will catch it, warn her of the consequences. Calling the IRS to report her might not be a great idea. It could open a can of worms that will affect you. At minimum, it won’t help your relationship with your kid’s mother, a relationship that needs to be reasonably good for the two of you to work out issues in the best interest of your children.