Pay child support, claim children?

my friend pays child support, and his ex does not work and receives public assistance. how can she have someone else claim the kids? shouldn't he be the one claiming them since she doesn't work and he is responsible for more than half of their support? can a magistrate put in the child support order that the father can claim the children? or does the mother have to agree? is she legally entitled to have someone claim them since she receives public assistance? thanks in advance!!

Who gets to claim the kids is usually worked out in the divorce agreement.

Generally it is the one paying the support.

The person who provides over half the support of the children can claim the deduction. When in doubt this is the person the child lives with. For a non-custodial parent to claim the child, the other one must provide IRS Form 8332. If the mother is on public assistance, there will be no benefit to her to refuse.

IRS could care less who a state court designates as the person allowed to claim the exemption. It looks at what actually happens during the year.

To claim a child, the child cannot support themselves. But, the IRS defaults to the parent who has custody.

If the special rules for divorced/separated parents apply AND the custodial parent gives consent on form 8332, then and only then can the non-custodial parent claim the children on their tax return. The divorce/custody decree may say the father can claim the children, but the special rules still have to be met and the legal paperwork is generally not a sufficient substitute for the form.

The special rules require that between the two parents, they provide custody and more than half of the total support. Since she is receiving public assistance, he'd better do the math to ensure that he is actually providing more than half of the support because he would have to outspend the state.

If he doesn't have the numbers, the IRS can easily claim he didn't provide half and if he doesn't have the form 8332, he is truly out of luck because that form MUST be filed with the tax return. (Even then it only allows for the exemption and the child tax credit. No HOH, no EIC, no child and dependent care.)

child support is not deductible. If mom was awarded physical custody, she has the ight to claim the kids. she would have to sign a certain IRS form allowing dad to claim kids on his return - seems reasonable, since they are of no tax benefit to her with zero income and if he shares some of the refund with her

Claiming one's children has nothing to do with custody. Generally, the divorce/separation agreement specifies who can claim the children for tax purposes. It would be in the best interest of the person paying the child support to claim the children - it is only right, since they are the one paying for the support.

If he can get a court order, with all the required language, that he be allowed to claim them, then he can. Other than that, he can only claim them if the mother signs a form allowing him to.

You don't say who this "someone else" is that she is allowing to claim them, whether the kids lived with that person and if so how long during the year - depending on circumstances, she might or might not be allowed legally to do that.