HoH Staus and Exempyions

Correct.

In order for you to claim HoH, your HoH qualifying person must be your dependent unless you signed away the right to claim the dependency allowance to the noncustodial parent under the special rules that apply to children of divorced or separated parents.

The Education credit goes to you if you correctly list him as your dependent, even if someone else paid the tuition & fees.

If he was not your dependent, and let's face it, either he was or was not, you shouldn't be choosing after the fact, then he claims himself and the educ credit.

If you qualify to claim him as your dependent, you can decline to do so and file as Single. In that case he can claim his own Educ credit. But since you qualify to claim him and don't he is not allowed to claim himself either.

I do not understand why you would not want to claim the Education credit?

Even if son paid the tuition, if he is your qualifying child who you claim as a dependent you get to claim the Education Credit. And get to claim HoH.

Because the parent's income may be larger than the threshold for Hope (phaseout from 47k to 57k for single filers), Lifetime (same phaseout), or tuition and fees (phaseout at 65k and 80k for single filers).

Art's suggestions are signigicant. I would advise the poster to review both his and his son's returns. Make the proper determination and file amended returns to pay the proper tax, on the son's returns, and claim refunds on parent's federal and (possibly) state returns.

So if OP signed away that right, OP could be HoH (and the child could take his own dependency)?

Seth

Sorry, my English could have been more precise.

No, if the only reason that your HoH qualifying person is not claimed as your dependent is that you signed away this right on Form 8332 or equivalent, under S 152, that person is still not able to claim him/herself.

But OP could still file HoH claiming the HoH qualifying person on form 1040 line 4 instead of on line 6.

Art's answer is correct. You always start with the determination of whether the child is your dependent or not. Once you determine that the child is your dependent, the child can never claim his/her own exemption. Only the custodial parent can claim the exemption or release it to the noncustodial parent. If the exemption is released, then only the exemption and CTC, if applicable, flow to the noncustodial parent. All the other tax benefits (HOH, EITC & C&DCC) remain with the custodial parent.

The only exception to the custodial parent claiming the exemption is if the parent and child are also living for more than six months with another relative (e.g., the grandmother) who could also treat that child as a qualifying child. In that instance, if the custodial parent does not want to release the exemption to the noncustodial parent, then the two taxpayers who have the same qualifying child can agree among themselves as to who will claim the child and all the other tax benefits (CTC, HOH, EITC & C&DCC).

Do the stimulus checks for children stay with the custodial or non- custodial parent?

Since the check eligibility is based on CTC qualification, I believe that the parent claiming CTC would get the $300 payment. I believe it is possible for BOTH parents to get checks for the children if the exemption is swapped each year (one parent in 2007 and the other in

You're correct, assuming both parents qualify for the credit. The parent who claimed the child on the 2007 return will get the $300 advance payment, which doesn't have to be repaid if you're not eligible for the 2008 credit. The parent who claims the child on the 2008 return will get the $300 refundable credit since (s)he didn't get the advance payment.

This looks like a loophole as divorced/seperated parents would get $600 per child.

Works the same way it did a few years ack when everyone expected to qualify for CTC got a 600 advance child crdit payment.

Not even a small surprise here.

If the two parents were unmarried in 2007 but married in 2008, and one parent got the advance ESP credit in 2007 based on his or her HOH return, can the other parent now get the credit on the 2008 MFJ return, or would MFS status be required (and claiming the dependent exemption)?

-Mark Bole

The net credit on the 2008 joint return will be the stimulus credit calculated from the 2008 data minus the total of the advance payments to the parents (but not less than zero). So no, no double stimulus credit for the child if they file 2008 jointly.

If they file 2008 separately it's the same as if they hadn't married with respect to the stimulus credit.