Tennessee Parents Ordered to Split Tax Exemtion for Child

Tennessee child support case summary on tax exemptions and dependency exemptions in divorce.

William Stephanson McCloud, II, v. Kimberly Denise McCloud

The husband and wife in this Tennessee case were married in 2005 and had one daughter.  The husband was a teacher, and the wife worked as a sales representative.  The husband filed for divorce in 2013, alleging adultery and inappropriate marital conduct.  The wife filed a counter-complaint, alleging inappropriate marital conduct and irreconcilable differences.

After hearing all of the evidence, the trial court granted the husband a divorce on the ground of inappropriate marital conduct.  The husband was awarded the marital residence and named the primary residential parent, with the wife receiving substantially equal parenting time.

Because the parties had approximately equal incomes and parenting time, no child support was awarded.  The trial court did order the parties to alternate the income tax exemption for the child.

The father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, raising a number of issues.  The appeals court ultimately affirmed the lower court’s order in its entirety.

One of the issues raised was whether it was appropriate to divide the tax exemption.  The appeals court cited an earlier case holding that this is a matter within the lower court’s discretion.  This is so even though the child support guidelines refer to “assumptions” regarding taxation.  The appeals court held that this language does not remove the lower court’s discretion.  After reviewing the facts of the case, the Court of Appeals agreed that the lower court had acted properly.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the lower court.

No. E2015-00289-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 9, 2015).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Support Laws in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.