Tax question regarding dependents

Factual Questions
1

So, I did my little sister’s taxes online this week, and I got the notice tonight that her return was rejected.

Here’s the situation. She has a baby, the father is a complete jerk who has done very little monetarily to support the child. They were living together for most of last year. Melissa left him (he’s an abusive bastard), and there was a temporary custody hearing last week, and one thing that was agreed to was that Cory would claim Paige as his dependent and Melissa would file head of household.

The other night, when Melissa and I were doing her taxes, she needed to call Cory and get Paige’s social security number. He wasn’t home, so she left a message. She found it somewhere else, and we continued. The next morning, however, Melissa gets a call from Cory in which he stated that he went ahead and did both, claiming Paige and filing head of household.

So, our grandmother called up the lady who does her farm taxes and asked her opinion. She (the tax lady) told her that, since Melissa has not yet signed anything giving Cory permission to claim Paige as a dependent, that she should go ahead and claim Paige and file head of household, and that Cory would get a letter from the IRS and would have to prove that he should be able to claim her, which he can’t.

But, her return was rejected. What should she do?

2

If they are married, neither of them can claim head of household for 2003. By the way you state the circumstances, they weren’t married, so she needs to get a transcript of the temporary custody hearing, redact unrelated information, and send it in with her return. Of course, because she agreed that the father could take the deduction, she’s only entitled to claim head of household.

In the absence of a court transcript, she would have to provide evidence that she is entitled to claim the child as a dependent (e.g., provided over half of the child’s support) and has provided over half the cost of maintaining a residence for the year.

Here are the requirements for filing head of household. http://www.pro1040.com/status_hd_of_household.htm

There are forms you can get from the IRS in order to file the financial information in order to resolve any dispute with the father.