Can my ex-wife and I alternate claiming our college student as dependent for tax purposes?

I help families with this situation all the time! Actually, you absolutely can alternate claiming your son as a dependent if you both agree to it. The IRS allows for this type of arrangement between divorced parents. Since your son will be a full-time college student under 24, he can still qualify as a dependent even though he's 18. To make this work smoothly, the parent not claiming the dependent in a given year should complete Form 8332 (Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent) and give it to the parent who will be claiming the dependent that year. You don't necessarily need to modify your divorce decree, but having something in writing between you is definitely a good idea. Just be aware that whoever claims him as a dependent gets to claim education credits like the American Opportunity Tax Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit in that year. Also, remember that using 529 funds or savings bonds for education doesn't actually require you to claim the student as a dependent. The tax benefits of the 529 go to whoever owns the account regardless of who claims the student as a dependent.

I went through something similar with my ex and our college kid last year. I found this awesome tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped us figure out the optimal way to handle our dependent situation. It analyzed both our tax situations and showed us exactly how much each of us would benefit in different scenarios. The tool lets you upload your tax documents and runs scenarios to show the impact of different decisions - like what happens if you claim your kid vs your ex claiming them. It showed us that in our case, we'd actually save more overall by having my ex claim our daughter in years when she had more education expenses, and me claiming her when I was using my 529 withdrawals. It also helped us create the proper documentation for our agreement so the IRS wouldn't flag anything. Definitely worth checking out if you want to maximize your combined tax benefits.

Just wanted to follow up - I decided to try taxr.ai after posting my question here. It was actually super helpful! I was surprised by how easy it was to use. I just entered our basic tax info (didn't need to upload full documents) and it showed me that I should claim our daughter in odd years and my ex in even years based on our income patterns and education expenses. The best part was that it generated a simple agreement document that laid everything out clearly. I sent it to my ex with the numbers showing we'd collectively save about $3,400 over four years with this arrangement compared to her claiming our daughter every year. Even though we don't get along great, the clear financial benefit convinced him to agree. We're actually being civil about something for once!

If you need to reach the IRS to confirm any of this dependent claiming info, good luck getting through to them! After trying for DAYS to speak with someone about a similar situation with my ex, I discovered Claimyr.com (https://claimyr.com) and their service is a game-changer. I was super skeptical at first, but they actually got me connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes when I had been trying for weeks on my own. They have this callback system that somehow navigates all the IRS phone tree nightmare for you. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with confirmed that we could alternate claiming our son as long as we had the right documentation (Form 8332) and were following the support rules. She even mailed me the exact forms I needed. Saved me so much stress trying to figure out if what we were doing was allowed.

I need to eat my words and apologize to Profile 10. After my skeptical comment about Claimyr, I spent THREE DAYS trying to get through to the IRS about my own dependent situation (divorced 5 years, ex moved out of state, custody arrangement changed). After being disconnected 4 times and wasting about 6 hours total on hold, I gave in and tried Claimyr. I got a call back in 37 minutes connecting me to an actual IRS representative who answered all my questions about Form 8332 and even helped me understand how the new arrangement would affect my child tax credit eligibility. Honestly, I've never been so happy to be wrong about something. The agent confirmed everything about alternating dependents that was mentioned here and clarified that we didn't need to modify our divorce decree as long as we had the proper IRS documentation in place each year.

Just a heads up - make sure you look at the actual numbers before you decide. My ex and I tried alternating claiming our son during college, but we didn't realize that the person who claims the dependent also gets the education credits (American Opportunity Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit). In our case, I'm in a much higher tax bracket than my ex, so the education credits were worth a lot more to her than to me (they phase out at higher income levels). We ended up with her claiming him every year for the education credits, and I just paid her a portion of the tax savings since I was contributing to his education expenses too. Do the math both ways before you commit to alternating years!

Make sure you also consider other tax benefits when planning this! My ex and I alternated claiming our daughter during college, but we didn't realize it would affect things like: 1. Filing status (head of household vs. single) 2. Earned Income Credit 3. Child Tax Credit (until age 17) 4. Higher education credits (American Opportunity Credit is worth up to $2,500) The parent NOT claiming the child in a given year should adjust their W-4 withholding at work to account for the change in tax situation that year. Also, I think one of you might be misunderstanding the savings bond education exclusion. You can only exclude the interest if the bonds are in YOUR name (not the child's) and you use them for qualified education expenses. But you also need to meet income limits, which phased out at like $98k-$128k for single filers last time I checked.

This is such great advice from everyone! I'm going through a similar situation with my ex, and reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful. One thing I'd add is to make sure you coordinate the timing of when you complete Form 8332 each year. We learned the hard way that if the custodial parent doesn't get the form to the non-custodial parent early enough in the tax year, it can create complications when filing. Also, I'd strongly recommend sitting down together (or communicating through email if that works better) to map out a 4-year plan before your son starts college. Figure out which parent will claim him each year, and factor in things like: - Who will be using 529 funds or savings bonds in which years - Any expected changes in income that might affect education credit eligibility - Whether either parent might remarry (affecting household income thresholds) We created a simple spreadsheet showing the projected tax benefits for each scenario over all four years, and it made the decision much clearer. Having it all planned out in advance has eliminated any confusion or arguments during tax season. One last tip - keep copies of all Form 8332s and any written agreements you make. The IRS can ask for documentation if they ever question who has the right to claim the dependent in a given year.