Q: Wife and I separated, agreement in place April 2024. I agreed that moving forward, she would claim both children for tax
If agreement and filing was done in 2024, does it apply to tax year 2023? I proposed that we each. Claim one to be fair
A: The agreement would apply for tax year 2024. I would highly recommend to provide this information to your taxpreparer when you file your tax returns in 2025.
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A:
The agreement made in 2024 would generally apply to future tax years, not retroactively to 2023. For the 2023 tax year, unless there was a specific agreement in place before filing, the standard IRS rules for determining who claims the children would apply.
Typically, this means the parent with whom the children lived for the greater part of the year or the parent with higher adjusted gross income may have the right to claim the children. If you and your spouse had not formalized an agreement by December 31, 2023, both of you could potentially face a situation where each claims one child, as you suggested, to balance things out.
If you want to claim one child for 2023, it would be best to communicate with your spouse and align on this approach before filing, to avoid any conflicts with the IRS.
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