(0:00 – 3:13)
Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell with Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group with another Family Law Matters. Hi Bonnie. Hi Michael, how are you? I’m doing well, thank you very very much, I appreciate your asking.
How are you doing? I’m doing really well. You know, once again we have to say in the new year, very quickly, Michael Mantel spells his name with two L’s because you know men, they need something more. And I spell my name with one L. We are not related, we are the best of buddies, but we are not related.
I don’t need an extra L. Right, but you do have two N’s in your name. You always do that and nobody finds that funny, man. Oh, I get thousands of emails constantly whenever I say that, my goodness.
All right, Bonnie, well listen, we’re raised in Canada, that’s the issue. Okay, but let’s get on to this. It is tax time and lots of couples are quibbling over who gets to write this off, who gets to write that off.
When it comes to the children, how do you decide, how do you deal with the issue of who takes the child as a tax exemption or write-off or whatever the phrase is? It’s very clear, Michael, you have somebody do your taxes. Yeah, oh yes, and my wife takes care of all that too. So interestingly, there’s two ways you can do it.
You can put in your agreement who’s going to claim the children or one child, and usually you do so depending on who makes more money and its benefits that you’re taking of those taxes. But the IRS rules say that the only one who can take the children as exemptions is a person who has more than 50% custody. So if you have a 70-30, 80-20 split, then the one who has more time with the children, the one who is presumably spending more on the children, even if the other side is paying child support, gets to claim the children.
You can agree otherwise, and there is a form with the IRS that you can sign to give the exemption to the other party. I don’t want to open a whole other door, but couples oftentimes agree on 50-50 legally, documented and so forth. But in practice, one or the other finds him or herself having the child or children more often than 50-50.
What do you do in that case? It depends how nitty-gritty that parent wants to be. If you want to show the IRS the expenses of your children and how much they spend with you, the IRS would have an argument that you should claim the child. But that takes, I mean, it’s the IRS people.
That takes a lot of time and energy, and I can’t imagine it being an easy process. That’s why they have this form that you can sign it over to the other side if they truly have more than 50-50 custody. But as we know, couples in divorce sometimes do get into that nitty-gritty.
(3:13 – 3:51)
And when they do, and they want to talk this over with you, one side or the other, how can they reach you and speak with you about this? Well, they can reach me directly at 619-574-8000, or they can reach us online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com. Both methods, there’s a lot of options to get on my calendar for a free 30-minute telephone or Zoom consultation. I’ll see if I can help. I’m sure you can.
I have no doubt about that. Bonnie, thank you very much for another wonderful Family Law Matters. We’ll see you next time.
(3:51 – 3:53)
Thank you, Michael. Have a great day.