A taxpayer married. Their relationship was described as “on-again, off-again.” At some point, the taxpayer and his wife were again separated and undergoing divorce proceedings. On his tax return, the taxpayer claimed a dependency exemption deduction for his children, earned income tax credit, the child tax credit, and the head of household filing status. The taxpayer did not attach a Form 8332, Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent, to his tax return.

The IRS disallowed the dependency exemption deduction, the earned income tax credit, and the child tax credit. The IRS also changed his filing status from head of household to single. The IRS argued that the taxpayer was not the custodial parent of his children and failed to attach a copy of Form 8332 to his return.

The taxpayer was not entitled to the head of household filing status because he was married to his wife at the end of the year and did not live apart from her for the last six months of the year. Therefore, the correct filing status is married filing separately since he did not file a joint return with his wife.

Note: If correct filing status is married filing separately, then he should not have been entitled to the earned income credit, which is disallowed for married filing separate returns.