Last updated on April 8, 2021
January is a time that many Georgia residents start to think about their prior year’s tax returns. If you are one of the people in Georgia who got divorced last year, preparing and filing your 2016 tax return will be different than in prior years. You will likely have new questions and things to think about when filing your return. In addition to collecting your income information, you may need to understand how your child support payments might impact your taxes.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, your taxes will be completed unaffected by child support. This is the case whether you are the parent who is ordered to make child support payments or whether you are the parents who is to receive child support payments. In fact, you will not include the payment or receipt of child support on your income tax form. That means parents who pay child support are responsible for all tax obligations associated with money paid as child support.
During your divorce, you and your former spouse would have had to negotiate custody of your children. The IRS considers the parent with whom the children spent the most time in the calendar year to be the custodial parent. This person is then allowed to claim the children as dependants on a tax return. A special form may be filed with the IRS that relinquishes the right of the custodial parent to claim the child deduction and transfers that right to the noncustodial parent.
This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give Georgia residents an overview of how a divorce may change tax filings.
