Approximately one in five divorced, non-custodial parents who are eligible to claim the Child Tax Credit through a formal dependency release agreement never file the necessary paperwork — often because no one tells them the option exists, according to estimates from tax advocacy organizations. For Marcus Bianchi, a 39-year-old restaurant manager from Pittsburgh, that gap in knowledge quietly cost him years of relief he had every right to claim.
I first encountered Marcus not in person, but in a comment thread. He had left a detailed, exasperated response under a piece I published in February 2026 about tax filing strategies for single-income earners, describing a situation that struck me as both deeply frustrating and surprisingly common. I reached out through the site’s contact form that same afternoon. Two weeks later, I drove to Pittsburgh and sat across from him at a diner near his apartment in Lawrenceville.
Marcus is the kind of person who chooses his words carefully, especially around money. He arrived ten minutes early, ordered black coffee, and spent the first few minutes making clear that he had been burned before — by a predatory tax prep service, by a credit card company, and by what he described as a general assumption that the system works for everyone equally. He is not wrong to be skeptical. But his story matters for any divorced parent trying to figure out exactly what they’re owed.
When the Overtime Stopped, the Budget Collapsed
For four years, Marcus had managed floor operations at a mid-sized Pittsburgh restaurant that averaged $3.2 million in annual revenue. His base salary was $67,500 per year. But the number his budget was actually built around was closer to $91,000, thanks to consistent overtime pay that averaged approximately $1,950 a month.
“That overtime wasn’t extra money for me,” Marcus told me, leaning back in the booth. “That was my rent, my car payment, my child support cushion. I had structured my whole life around it.” His child support obligation — set at $1,380 per month following his 2021 divorce — was manageable when he was clearing $91,000 a year. When the restaurant eliminated overtime for all management staff in June 2025, citing rising food costs and reduced weekend traffic, Marcus’s take-home income dropped almost overnight.
The monthly shortfall was immediate. Between rent, child support, his car, and utilities, Marcus was spending roughly $4,100 a month on fixed expenses. On $67,500 a year — about $5,625 a month gross, significantly less after taxes — there was almost nothing left for groceries, unexpected costs, or emergencies. “The first month I missed a credit card minimum payment in seven years,” he said. “I just didn’t have it.”
A Credit Score Burned Twice Over
Marcus’s credit history is what tax professionals sometimes call a complicated file. In his late twenties, a period of job instability after a restaurant closure left him with two charge-offs and a collection account. He had spent years rebuilding, reaching a score of 671 by early 2024 — not perfect, but functional. Then the overtime cut arrived.
By October 2025, three consecutive late payments had dragged his score back down to approximately 592. When Marcus approached his credit union about a personal loan to bridge the income gap, he was denied. “They told me my debt-to-income ratio was too high,” he said flatly. “Which it was, obviously, because I was trying to survive on less money. It felt like a circular trap.”
With a loan off the table, Marcus began looking at his tax situation more carefully for the first time in years. He had always used a national tax prep chain — a decision he now regrets, given what he eventually discovered.
The Child Tax Credit No One Mentioned
Marcus has two children, ages 10 and 12, who live primarily with their mother under the custody arrangement established in the 2021 divorce. Because she is the custodial parent, she had claimed both children as dependents every year since the divorce and received the Child Tax Credit each time. Marcus had assumed that was simply how it worked — that the credit belonged to her by default.
He was partially right. Under IRS rules on the Child Tax Credit, the custodial parent generally claims the dependency exemption. But the custodial parent can legally release that claim to the non-custodial parent by signing IRS Form 8332, allowing the non-custodial parent to claim the Child Tax Credit — worth up to $2,000 per child for tax year 2025. Marcus had never been told this by any of the preparers he had used.
When Marcus finally connected with a CPA — a referral from a coworker — the conversation shifted his entire understanding of his tax situation. “She asked me about the kids in the first ten minutes,” Marcus told me. “I said I pay support but they live with their mom. She said, ‘Has anyone talked to you about Form 8332?’ I had no idea what she was talking about.”
As Marcus explained to me, his ex-wife had already been claiming both children every year. But after a conversation he described as “not easy, but not as hard as I expected,” she agreed to release one child’s exemption to him for tax year 2025. They are now negotiating an alternating-year arrangement going forward, which would give Marcus the ability to claim both children in odd-numbered years.
A Partial Win, and Years of Regret
Marcus filed his 2025 return in late February 2026 with Form 8332 attached, claiming one child as a dependent. The Child Tax Credit reduced his federal tax liability by $2,000. Combined with adjustments to his withholding and a small Pennsylvania state refund, his total refund came to $2,847.
The refund helped — but Marcus framed the outcome as bittersweet from the moment he described it. “I needed $2,847 about eight months ago,” he said with a dry laugh. “It kept me from falling further behind on my credit card. But I’m still sitting at a 601 credit score. That’s going to follow me for a while.”
He is also grappling with what he likely left on the table. His CPA told him that had he known about Form 8332 since 2022, he might have been able to claim the credit in alternating years — potentially missing out on between $4,000 and $6,000 in cumulative tax relief over four filing seasons. The national prep chain he had used previously never probed his custody arrangement in enough detail to surface the option.
Marcus told me he plans to finalize the full alternating-year arrangement with his ex-wife before the 2026 tax year closes, which would allow him to claim both children in odd years and potentially receive up to $4,000 in Child Tax Credits — assuming current credit amounts hold under whatever legislation governs 2026 returns. He has also switched to the CPA permanently, despite the higher cost compared to the national chain.
When I asked whether he felt the relief was enough, Marcus paused for a long moment before answering. “Enough? No. But it was something. Something I actually earned.” For a man who has spent years deeply suspicious of systems that seemed designed to overlook people in his position, that distinction mattered more than the dollar amount.
Sitting in that diner in Lawrenceville, watching Marcus wrap both hands around his second cup of coffee, I kept thinking about how many people are in exactly his position — technically eligible for relief they have never claimed, not because they failed to look, but because the people they trusted to help them never looked carefully enough. The tax code does not advertise its provisions to the people who need them most. Sometimes it takes one right question from the right person to change the math entirely. For Marcus, that question came three years too late. But at least it finally came.
Related: Your IRS Refund Tracker Went Blank After Filing — Here’s What That Actually Means in 2026
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