Dependents/EIC

[KarenT]

Non married taxpayer with a child.  Court did not assign either parent as custodial.  Child spends 3 1/2 days per week with each parent.  Court document states that mother claims the child on odd years, father claims on even years.  So does the father on his years gets to claim Head of Household, EIC, child care credit? 

[qbteachmt]

The IRS has a Wizards portal with a list of various ways to work through those individual scenarios:

You might want to bookmark the links there and read the IRS guidance.


https://www.irs.gov/help/ita

[TaxGuyBill]

For tax purposes, custody is based on the number of nights that the child 'belongs' with the parent.  They need to keep track of it very carefully  So except for leap year (such as 2020), there is no such thing as 50/50. 

However, it might be a good idea for the parent whose 'year' it is, to ensure that the kid stays with that parent more nights.  That way, YES, the parent can potentially claim all of the other tax benefits.