Divorced Father Not Entitled to Dependency Exemptions, Child Tax Credit or Head-of-Household Status Absent Declaration by Custodial Parent

A divorced father was not entitled to dependency exemptions for his three children because they did not share the same place of abode with him for more than one half of the year in issue and did not fall within the exception in Code Sec. 152(e) because: (a) the custodial parent did not sign a written declaration (generally Form 8332) relinquishing any claim to the deduction for that calendar year and (b) the father as noncustodial parent did not attach any such declaration to his return. The father may have seemed to be entitled to the deduction under state law and the terms of the divorce decree, but the Internal Revenue Code controls the validity of a deduction for federal tax purposes. No retroactive declaration could be submitted because the period of limitations for assessment had expired.

In addition, because a taxpayer can only claim the child tax credit under Code Sec. 24(a) in relation to children for whom that taxpayer is allowed a dependency exemption, the father was not entitled to take the child tax credit in relation to any of his children for the year in issue.

The father was also not permitted to claim head-of-household status because qualifying for that status requires providing a principal place of abode for the children for more than one half of the year, which he did not do. Unlike the dependency exemption provision that provides an exception under Code Sec. 152(e) for divorced, noncustodial parents there is no exception to the more-than-six-months requirement of Code Sec. 2(b).