RUMOR: The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born to parents illegally in the U.S. Critics argue that automatic birthright citizenship could be changed by revoking the statute. Others say it would require a constitutional amendment because they believe the 14th Amendment requires birthright citizenship.
Answer: Each child can only be claimed as a dependent by one parent (except when married couples file taxes jointly). Typically, in the case of divorced, separated, or never married parents, it is the custodial parent who is legally able to claim a child as a dependent for tax purposes.
Divorced parents cannot split the tax deduction for a child. The Internal Revenue Service published guidelines for who can claim a dependent child, and those guidelines do offer some flexibility in who can claim the deductions. However, the custodial parent is the one who can claim the deduction in most cases. If you are a divorced parent with joint custody of a child, learn all of the options for tax deductions.