Replies

You don't need to be a retired CPA like me to know that a list of eligible dependent children on a tax return is not in any way a list of children in your legal custody, either sole or shared. All you need is an ex-wife to know that.

I don't know the 1973 HI state income tax code, but nationally states mostly mirror the federal rules for dependents, it they have an income tax.

If the child lives with you, as Maya did, she is pretty automatically an eligible dependent. If the child does not live with you, you typically must claim to have provided over 50% of the support for the child or have a court order awarding you the right to claim the child on your return because only one tax filer can claim the child (assert having provided over 50% of the support for the child).

On this 1973 HI return, Lolo and S. Ann are filing jointly and are claiming as a dependent only their daughter Maya who is living with them.

They are NOT admitting or declaring that S. Ann does not have custody of Barry, only that he is not living with them and they are not claiming him as a dependent.

I would expect that the Dunham grandparents claimed Barry on their return as a dependent child as he was living with them at the time.

My ex-wife and I passed a child back and forth several times and whoever had him got to claim him as a dependent but we had joint custody at all times.

Note, again, that in the divorce decree, one child of the marriage over age 18 (unnamed) is listed for Lolo and Stanley Ann. In documents on the record that I have seen there was no loss of custody of Barry by her at any time before age 18.

Something mysterious happened with BHO Sr. in 1971, probably pertaining to Barry's Kenyan potential dual citizenship in the newly founded independent nation and possible rights and benefits for Barry. After all, BHO Sr. got financial aid for study in the US as a Kenyan student. That 1971 visit might not have had anything to do with custody, but only with preserving/validating Kenyan citizenship...possibly based on birth in Kenya. Stanley Ann was keen on Barry's future education and did place him in the most prestigious school in HI with the help of grandma.