Massachusetts Divorce Law - Publication 504: Divorced or Separated Individuals

Generally, you can deduct $3,200 for each exemption you claim in 2005. You may be able to take an additional exemption amount if you provided housing to a person displaced by Hurricane Katrina. For more information, see Publication 4492.

If your adjusted gross income is more than $109,475, see Phaseout of Exemptions , later.

There are two types of exemptions: personal exemptions and exemptions for dependents. If you are entitled to claim an exemption for a dependent (such as your child), that dependent cannot claim his or her personal exemption on his or her own tax return.

You can claim your own exemption unless someone else can claim it. If you are married, you may be able to take an exemption for your spouse. These are called personal exemptions.

Your spouse is never considered your dependent. You may be able to take an exemption for your spouse only because you are married.

Joint return. On a joint return, you can claim one exemption for yourself and one for your spouse. If your spouse had any gross income, you can claim his or her exemption only if you file a joint return.

Separate return. If you file a separate return, you can take an exemption for your spouse only if your spouse had no gross income and was not the dependent of another taxpayer. If your spouse is the dependent of another taxpayer, you cannot claim an exemption for your spouse even if the other taxpayer does not actually claim your spouse's exemption.

Alimony paid. If you paid alimony to your spouse, you cannot take an exemption for your spouse. This is because alimony is gross income to the spouse who received it.

Divorced or separated spouse. If you obtained a final decree of divorce or separate maintenance by the end of the year, you cannot take your former spouse's exemption. This rule applies even if you provided all of your former spouse's support.

You are allowed one exemption for each person you can claim as a dependent. You can claim an exemption for a dependent even if your dependent files a return.

Table 3 shows the tests that must be met to be either a qualifying child or qualifying relative, plus the additional requirements for claiming an exemption for a dependent. For detailed information, see Publication 501.

Caution. This table is only an overview of the rules. For details, see Publication 501

You cannot claim any dependents if you, or your spouse if filing jointly, could be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer. You cannot claim a married person who files a joint return as a dependent unless that joint return is only a claim for refund and there would be no tax liability for either spouse on separate returns. You cannot claim a person as a dependent unless that person is a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident, U.S. national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico, for some part of the year. 1 You cannot claim a person as a dependent unless that person is your qualifying child or qualifying relative.
Tests To Be a Qualifying Child	Tests To Be a Qualifying Relative
The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them. The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year, (b) under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student, or (c) any age if permanently and totally disabled. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. 2,3 The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year. 3 If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child.	The person cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of anyone else. The person either (a) must be related to you in one of the ways listed under Relatives who do not have to live with you, or (b) must live with you all year as a member of your household. 2 The person's gross income for the year must be less than $3,200. 4 You must provide more than half of the person's total support for the year. 3,5
1 Exception exists for certain adopted children. 2 Exceptions exist for temporary absences, children who were born or died during the year, children of divorced or separated parents, and kidnapped children. 3 Special rules may apply for people who were temporarily relocated because of Hurricane Katrina. For details, see Publication 4492. 4 Exception exists for persons who are disabled and have income from a sheltered workshop. 5 Exception exists for multiple support agreements. See Publication 501.

CAUTION. Dependent not allowed a personal exemption. If you can claim an exemption for your dependent, the dependent cannot claim his or her own exemption on his or her own tax return. This is true even if you do not claim the dependent's exemption on your return or if the exemption will be reduced or eliminated under the phaseout rule described under Phaseout of Exemptions, later.

TIP. You may be entitled to a child tax credit for each qualifying child who was under age 17 at the end of the year. For more information, see the instructions in your tax forms package.

In most cases, a child of divorced or separated parents will be a qualifying child (see Table 3) of one of the parents. However, if the child does not meet the requirements to be a qualifying child of either parent, the child may be a qualifying relative of one of the parents.

A child will be treated as the qualifying child or qualifying relative of his or her non custodial parent if all of the following apply.

CAUTION. If the support of the child is determined under a multiple support agreement, this special support test for divorced or separated parents does not apply.

Custodial parent and non custodial parent. The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater part of the year. The other parent is the non custodial parent. If the parents divorced or separated during the year and the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child lived for the greater part of the rest of the year.

Example. Under the terms of your divorce, your child lived with you for 10 months of the year. The child lived with your former spouse for the other 2 months. You are considered the custodial parent.

Written declaration. The custodial parent must use either Form 8332 or a similar statement (containing the information required by the form) to make the written declaration to release the exemption to the non custodial parent. The exemption can be released for 1 year, for a number of specified years (for example, alternate years), or for all future years, as specified in the declaration.

Child support under pre-1985 agreement. All child support payments actually received from the non custodial parent under a pre-1985 agreement are considered used for the support of the child.

Example. Under a pre-1985 agreement, the non custodial parent provides $1,200 for the child's support. This amount is considered support provided by the non custodial parent even if the $1,200 was actually spent on things other than support.

Alimony. Payments to a spouse that are includible in the spouse's gross income as either alimony, separate maintenance payments, or similar payments from an estate or trust, are not treated as a payment for the support of a dependent.

Parents who never married. This special rule for divorced or separated parents also applies to parents who never married.

Special test for qualifying child of more than one person. Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, and support tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child. To meet this special test, you must be the person who can treat the child as a qualifying child. If you and another person have the same qualifying child, you and the other person(s) can decide which of you will treat the child as a qualifying child. That person can take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit) based on the qualifying child.

he other person cannot take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person cannot agree to divide these tax benefits between you. If you and the other person(s) cannot agree on who will claim the child and more than one person files a return claiming the same child, the IRS will disallow all but one of the claims using the tie-breaker rule in Table 4.

Table 4. When More Than One Person Files a Return Claiming the Same Qualifying Child (Tie-Breaker Rule)

IF more than one person files a return claiming the same qualifying child and ...	THEN the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the ...
only one of the persons is the child's parent,	parent.
two of the persons are the child's parent and they do not file a joint return together,	parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year.
two of the persons are the child's parent, they do not file a joint return together, and the child lived with each parent the same amount of time during the year,	parent with the highest adjusted gross income (AGI).
none of the persons are the child's parent,	person with the highest AGI.

You, your husband, and your 10-year-old son lived together until July 1, 2005, when your husband moved out of the household. In July and August, your son lived with your husband. In September and October, the boy lived with you. On November 1, 2005, you and your husband were divorced. For the rest of the year, your son lived with your ex-husband, who was given custody. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and your ex-husband because your son lived with each of you for more than half the year and because he met the relationship, age, and support tests for both of you.

You and your ex-husband may choose which of you will treat the child as a qualifying child. However, if you and he are unable to agree and both treat the child as a qualifying child, only your ex-husband will be allowed to treat him as a qualifying child. This is because, during 2005, the child lived with him longer than with you.

You, your 5-year-old son, and your son's father lived together all year. You and your son's father are not married. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and his father because he meets the relationship, age, residency, and support tests for both you and his father. Your adjusted gross income (AGI) is $8,000 and your son's father's AGI is $18,000. You and your son's father may choose which of you will treat the child as a qualifying child. However, if you and he are unable to agree and both treat the child as a qualifying child, only the father will be allowed to treat him as a qualifying child. This is because his AGI, $18,000, is more than your AGI, $8,000.

The amount you can claim as a deduction for exemptions is phased out once your adjusted gross income (AGI) goes above a certain level for your filing status. These levels are as follows:

Filing Status	AGI Level Which Reduces Exemption Amount
Married filing separately	$109,475
Single	$145,950
Head of household	$182,450
Married filing jointly	$218,950
Qualifying widow(er)	$218,950

You must reduce the dollar amount of your exemptions by 2% for each $2,500, or part of $2,500 ($1,250 if you are married filing separately), that your AGI exceeds the amount shown above for your filing status. If your AGI exceeds the amount shown above by more than $122,500 ($61,250 if married filing separately), the amount of your deduction for exemptions is reduced to zero.

If your AGI exceeds the level for your filing status, use the Deduction for Exemptions Worksheet, found in the instructions for Form 1040 or 1040A, to figure the amount of your deduction for exemptions. However, if you are claiming an additional exemption amount for housing persons displaced by Hurricane Katrina, use Form 8914, Part II, to figure your deduction.

Publication 504: Divorced or Separated Individuals - Exemptions