Separated Parents - Tax Receipt

[bright sparks]

I have a couple that separated while their child was attending my centre (not quite sure when they separated - dad didn't do much pick up/drop off and I can't recall when he completely dropped out of the picture). Mom was always the one to pay child care fees in the office. At the beginning of the year, I issued a tax receipt for the entire 2016 year in Mom's name (Dad was not in the picture at this time - Mom stated he had left the country).

Mom obtained sole custody earlier this year, however, the divorce is still pending.

Dad has requested a tax receipt be issued for the first 6 months of 2016 in his name as that was when they were together and he alleges that payments were being made out of the joint account. Apparently he claimed these expenses on his 2016 income and is now being audited by the CRA.

I do not believe I need to issue this tax receipt. I have already issued a tax receipt in mom's name for the 2016 year and she has done her taxes. If I issue ANOTHER receipt in dad's name, I would consider that fraudulent. I can't force mom to give me back the original tax receipt, so I would essentially be receipting double. And it wouldn't be considered a "duplicate" receipt because it would be in his name and for a different amount. Does this make sense? I believe this is an issue the parents need to figure out with their lawyers.

Who do you have the signed agreement with? Is it both parents or just one of them? If just one, then I would issue it to that parent. Unfortunately, this father shouldn't have submitted a claim for the expense without a receipt in the first place, that is the fraudulent activity.

[Lee-Bee]

I think I would tell the dad you need to be in contact with CRA to figure out how to move forward since you have already issued a receipt for the full fees and therefore can only issue a duplicate receipt (marked duplicate).

I don't believe you can issue a new receipt but at the same time technically you likely had to issue him a receipt for the time he was in the picture (a joint receipt in the least) and since you didn't you will need to figure out from CRA what to do.

It was on both the parents to deal with this on their end. Separation or not they both needed to know who was claiming what and make sure they didn't double claim.