Life and Taxes, Divorce and Earned Income Credit.  

That is a very good question. I can only claim my daughter every other year on my taxes. Her dad gets to claim her the other years. She lives with me full time also and he never sees her. You should be able to claim your child if he doesn't.

OK, you're not reading that right, I think.

As I write this I'm waiting for my hair to dry so I can go to work - yes, on Easter. My next day off (it's been about a month) is Thursday - April 16th. That's a holiday in my line of work - I'm a CPA.

Here's the deal with EIC (Earned Income Credit).

The child (doesn't always have to be your own) has to live with you more than half the year. That's a major qualifier. He can't live with both of you for more than half the year so wether your x qualifies or not is irrelevant. That only matters if someone in your household also qualifies - like say you live with your mother, she may also qualify. So, in short, if your son lives with you most of the time then your husbands other qualification (income) don't count. Basically, if the child lives with you, you start to qualify - this is also the case for Head of Household. Don't file as single, you get to use the child that lives with you to cliam Head of Household even if you can't claim the exemption for that child. But only one person in the house (if you live with your mother or something) can be HOH.

Now, as long as that's ok, the next step is determining your income level to see if you qualify and for how much.

Are you using tax software? Turbo Tax is pretty good and if you qualify for EIC then it's going to be free to use on-line - I think, it used to be like that eons ago when I got EIC.

Feel free to PM me if you want. I'm way busy, but I gotta myLot to keep my sanity! I'll get back to you in time to finish filing.