My wife and I are creating a separation agreement through a private mediation firm. The question came up as to who would claim the children each year. My wife said that she would like to claim the 4 children every year. I was going to ask that we each claim two children every year. The Mediator said that the calculator assumes that the person receiving the child support is the one that is claiming all of the children. Is this correct or should I be able to claim half of the children?
You can negotiate who gets to claim the dependency deduction. You can choose to split the children (you claim children A and B and she claims children C and D), or you can alternate who can claim the deduction (You in odd years, her in even years). If she doesn’t agree to share the deduction in one of the above ways, the IRS has certain rules about which parent may claim the child.