Reader’s doubt: I have two daughters and in 2024, half the year they were my dependents; In the other half, they were fed. How is the income tax return?
*By Richard Domingos
“In the case of children of separate parents, the taxpayer may consider them as dependent if they are under their custody, according to a judicially approved decision or agreement.
Those who pay child support, in compliance with the rules of family law, cannot deduct the value of the dependent in the income tax return. The only exception occurs when the judicial separation happened in the calendar year of the declaration. In this case, it is possible to deduce, in the same year, both the amounts related to the dependent and the paid as a judicial alimony.
With the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (ADI No. 5,422), final on November 5, 2022, the amounts received as alimony or food are no longer taxable. Thus, those who receive the pension should declare it as exempt income, while those who pay can launch it as deductible expense.
More than one taxpayer is prohibited to deduct the same dependent on the tax base, except in the case of judicial separation in the year of the declaration.
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In the case of shared custody, each child may be considered dependent on only one of the parents, as determined in the sentence or an approved judicial agreement. Remember that shared custody does not mean expense division equally. Thus, the following rules must be observed:
- the. If the judgment or court agreement determines the payment of alimony, the payment responsible may not be able to launch the child as a dependent, only as feeding.
- b. If there is no definition of alimony and both parents divide expenses during the period in which the child is under their care, individual health and education spending can be declared. However, in order for the child to be included as a dependent, only one parent may do so, provided that this possibility is provided for in the court decision, approved agreement or public deed (according to RFB Normative Instruction No. 1,756, of October 31, 2017). ”
*Richard Domingos, Executive Director of Confirp Accounting, has over 20 years of experience in the area of Accounting, Tax/Tax and Labor/Social Security
