Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Support
In a Florida child support case, the court may assign the tax dependency exemption to one parent or the other. The court can also order that the dependency exemption be alternated between the parties, with one claiming the exemption one year, and the other claiming the exemption the next year. Modification of the tax dependency exemption was an issue in the case Dorsett v. Ferguson, 2D2024-0917 (Fla. 2d DCA April 23, 2025).
The parties entered post-judgment litigation after their divorce, filing competing petitions for modification of the final judgment. The court entered a supplemental petition of modification and the former husband appealed. The appellate court affirmed on all issues raised by the former husband except as it related to the tax dependency exemption. In the original judgment of divorce, the former husband was granted the right to claim the child as an exemption for tax purposes. The supplemental final judgment altered this to allow the former wife to do so even though neither party requested this relief in their respective pleadings.
The appellate court reversed on this issue, holding “Because neither party requested this modification, it was an abuse of discretion to alter this tax benefit. ‘[C]ourts are not authorized to award relief not requested in the pleadings. To grant unrequested relief is an abuse of discretion and reversible error.’ Stover v. Stover, 287 So. 3d 1277, 1279 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020) (alteration in original) (quoting Abbott v. Abbott, 98 So. 3d 616, 617-18 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012)). Accordingly, we reverse the supplemental final judgment with directions to the trial court to amend the judgment to allow [the former husband'] to claim the federal income tax exemption for the child.”
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