Claiming Tax Exemptions for Children After Divorce

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Massachusetts

My ex-wife and I have two children. I have one child with my current wife. My ex-wife also has a child with her current husband. My ex-wife does not have an income, and I pay her support.

My divorce and custody agreement grants me the ability to claim one of the children from my first marriage. It has been this way since our divorce 3-4yrs ago.

My ex-wife is now asking to change our tax arrangement. She wants to know if I'm filing jointly with my wife. Is this any of her business? Can I tell her to pound sand, and take me back to court if she wants to change anything?

Should I be filing separately? Last year my wife and I filed together and claimed our child and my child from the previous marriage. I can't see why I would do any differently.

Any help is appreciated.

You should not file separately unless you have a good tax related reason to file separately. The fact that you file a joint return with your wife is totally irrelevant.

What does your ex want to change, and why does she want to change it?

Having been through this I would say to tell her to pound sand. I like that expression!

That's what I figured. She hasn't proposed a change yet. She's hell bent on making my life difficult right now because she's not getting what she wants. We just went to court to weeks ago and she was completely rebuffed. I'm thinking she likely wants to claim both kids, or try to force me to file separately. Right.

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Quoting Mark47n

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Having been through this I would say to tell her to pound sand. I like that expression!

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I think that he should answer my questions first. As a tax professional I can think of quite a few, non nefarious reasons why she might have asked that question.

This is just one of a slew of trumped up, bogus, nonsense things she's trying to hit me with right now. There are no lawyers involved, so there's no one to tell her she's cracked until we get to mediation and she gets shut down.

I'm not a tax professional but I dealt with this very situation a few years back. We continued to file as married and to claim one of the children. The ex didn't like it but he didn't have to. That said...he should answer your questions as well.

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Quoting llworking

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I think that he should answer my questions first. As a tax professional I can think of quite a few, non nefarious reasons why she might have asked that question.

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She hasn't asked anything yet, other than my filing status. She just stated that she wanted to change our agreement. For the time being, would I be unreasonable if I told her I wasn't at liberty to share that information with her? At least until I hear more from her in regards to what she wants...

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Quoting MixtecoBlue

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She hasn't asked anything yet, other than my filing status. She just stated that she wanted to change our agreement. For the time being, would I be unreasonable if I told her I wasn't at liberty to share that information with her? At least until I hear more from her in regards to what she wants...

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"let me know your end goal so we can discuss it further"

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Quoting MixtecoBlue

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She hasn't asked anything yet, other than my filing status. She just stated that she wanted to change our agreement. For the time being, would I be unreasonable if I told her I wasn't at liberty to share that information with her? At least until I hear more from her in regards to what she wants...

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Sharing your filing status with her gives her absolutely no ammunition against you in any way, shape or form. On top of that, there is no way that anyone can force you to file a separate tax return, no one has the legal authority to do so (no, the judge does NOT have that authority).

In fact, sharing your filing status with her might possibly put an end to the matter. Your outrage over this whole thing seems way over the top to me.