Child Tax Credit and Dependent.

If you are asking: For the 2008 tax year, was it possible for someone to be claimed for child tax credit but not for the dependency exemption, the answer is clearly Yes,

In fact, pull up 2008 Form 8901, which was the form used way back in 2008 when a taxpayer could claim child tax credit without being allowed to claim the child's dependency expemption.

The reasons for that have nothing at all to do with assigning the CTC to one taxpayer and dependency exemption to another, which was and is prohibited. The reasons have to do with a child meeting the CTC rules but not meeting the dependency rules, such as failing the joint return test or nonresident alien circumstances.

For 2009, a taxpayer cannot claim CTC without also being able to and actually claiming the dependency exemption, so Form 8901 has been retired.

I answered Yes to that in another message, but you seem also to be asking if one taxpayer can claim a child's dependency exemption while another taxpayer can claim the CTC. For 2008. Answer is no, and in fact, here are six tax related items that can be claimed by not more than one taxpayer, except in the case of divorced or separated parents.

Not more than one taxpayer can gain the tax benefits based on a particular qualifying child, of

2 Child tax credit/Additional CTC

4 Head of Household

6 Participation in an employer's child care reimbursement plan.

Exception for the case of divorced o separated parents:

If the custodial parent signs a Form 8332 or equivalent, granting the noncustodial parent the right to claim the depndency allowance, that also grants the right to claim CTC.

None of the other tax benefits can be signed away.

Or, as in the OP, the taxpayer being claimable as a dependent.

-Mark Bole

"divorced, separated, or never-married".

Primarily applies if they lived apart for the last six months of the year.

What I find ironic is that divorced parents can live together and split the tax benefits, while never-married parents cannot. Seems like it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they could just go straight from never-married to divorced, and skip the marriage. ;-)

-Mark Bole

Well, if divorced parents live together they cannot transfer taxable income by using alimony.