Do the mother and father have to alternate claiming the child each year on their tax returns if they

When a married couple who have a child/children split up and file for divorce, the way taxes are done can be a tad tricky. After the divorce, depending on what the courts rule on for parental custody, filing taxes with dependents is difficult. Obviously when you get divorced you would need to file as a single taxpayer, rather than a joint couple. If the two of you have one kid, unless the courts grant full custody to one parent, they must talk things through and decide how the kid will be filed for tax purposes as a dependent. You may decide to take yearly turns, so you would receive the benefits of having an extra dependent every other year. The first year one parent would list the child as a dependent, and then the following year the other parent will do it. Obviously you can do different patterns, but that is typically how it is done. When there are an even number amount of kids, then the easiest way would be to split them up evenly between each parent for tax purposes. This of course would have to be approved by the courts, first.