Help please!! I need a custody lawyer! (Wichita: how much, house)

[Help2005]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Hello, I have a five-year-old daughter who was living with me most of last year. I am not married but her mother was also living with me at the same time. We were in a long relationship of around eight to nine years off and on. We both raised our daughter since the day she was born and for the most part lived together the whole time. In November, she decided that she wanted to separate. So she moved out, my daughter would still stay with me on occasion but it wasn’t a daily thing. We had a prior verbal agreement that we both would have 50/50 custody. Now her mother is trying to tell me when I can see her and with who. She only lets me see her maybe one day a week and that’s only if its convenient for her (if she has to work, or if she wants to go out). In the previous years when we were living together, I paid most of if not all of the bills including in the house in 2009. But we made an agreement that we would switch years as far as tax returns went. Her mother claimed her in 2008 so 2009 was my year. But when she left she took my daughters Social Security card so I couldn’t file. It took me a while to find my previous tax returns and by the time I tried to file her mother had already claimed her as a dependant. I went ahead and filed anyways, and know that we will probably both be audited. So, I need to know what I should do with the tax situation and also if anybody knows any great custody lawyer in the Wichita area I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you! [/FONT]

[RedJacket]

Verbal agreements are worthless in this case -- and in most any case. Yep, there's a good chance you'll both be audited. The IRS has their own set of criteria in determining who gets to claim the child as a dependent in the absence of a written agreement signed by a judge.

What the IRS is probably going to want is written documentation from the both of you. Times, dates, places proving the child spent at least six months and one day living with you during the course of the year. They'll want proof of who paid for what, who contributed financially and how much.

If neither of you have any proof of anything, then I'm not quite sure how the IRS will settle the matter. I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not from Kansas so I can't recommend a lawyer for you.

Ask friends, co-workers and others if they know of anyone. Divorces happen everyday everywhere.

[lifelongMOgal]

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