The federal tax filing deadline is April 15, 2026 — and for millions of divorced Americans navigating split custody, missed deductions and the wrong filing status can mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars left unclaimed. Tommy Bianchi almost learned that the hard way, for the third year in a row.
When I sat down with Tommy Bianchi at a diner off I-17 in north Phoenix on a Tuesday morning in late February, he had just come off a weekend with his two kids — a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter. He ordered coffee, set his phone face-down on the table, and started talking before I even had my notebook open.
A Divorce That Cost More Than He Expected
Tommy Bianchi is 46, an HVAC technician who has worked the same trade route across the greater Phoenix metro for nearly two decades. By any reasonable measure, he earns a decent living. But his gross income, which he put at roughly $76,000 in 2025, tells only part of the financial story.
His divorce was finalized in the spring of 2023. The settlement cost him the house — a three-bedroom in Glendale he had owned for nine years — and left him with $22,000 in legal fees he had charged across two credit cards just to get through the proceedings. He has been renting a two-bedroom apartment ever since, paying $1,475 a month, and sending $1,600 every month to his ex-wife in child support.
That child support figure — $19,200 a year — represents roughly 25 percent of his gross income. He is not complaining about supporting his children. He is clear about that. What he is frustrated by is the compound weight of it: rent, child support, credit card minimums, and the quiet erosion of any chance at saving for another home.
The Weekends That Cost More Than He Admits
Tommy sees his kids every other weekend. He picks them up Friday evening and drops them off Sunday night, and in those 48 hours he tries to make up for the distance — both physical and emotional — that the divorce created. He took them to a Suns game in December. He rented paddleboards at Lake Pleasant last summer. In January, he bought his daughter a new tablet because hers was cracked.
He knows, intellectually, that he spends more than he should on those weekends. He told me as much without me asking.
He estimates he spends between $400 and $700 on the weekends he has custody, depending on the month. That is money that is not going toward his credit card balances or a savings account. It is also, as he framed it, non-negotiable — at least emotionally.
The Filing Status He Had Wrong for Two Years
This is where the story pivots. For tax years 2023 and 2024, Tommy filed as Single. He assumed that was correct — he was no longer married, he didn’t have primary custody, and he figured that was the end of it. His tax refunds those years were modest: $310 in 2023 and $490 in 2024.
In January 2026, a coworker mentioned she used a CPA who specializes in post-divorce tax situations. Tommy made an appointment, mostly out of curiosity. What that preparer found changed his outlook on the upcoming filing season considerably.
Because Tommy’s custody agreement included specific language designating him as the parent who could claim his daughter as a dependent in alternating tax years — and 2025 was one of those years — he was potentially eligible to file as Head of Household for that return. According to the IRS’s Head of Household guidelines, a taxpayer can qualify if they are unmarried, paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home, and had a qualifying person live with them for more than half the year. Tommy’s situation was more complex given the alternating custody structure, but his preparer identified a path under the qualifying dependent rules that could make him eligible in 2025.
The preparer also identified that Tommy could claim the Child Tax Credit for his daughter in the 2025 tax year — up to $2,000 per qualifying child under 17, subject to income phase-outs. At his income level, he was below the phase-out threshold of $200,000 for single filers, per IRS Child Tax Credit guidance.
What the Numbers Actually Looked Like
Tommy walked me through what his preparer had projected for his 2025 return, though he was careful to note nothing was finalized yet when we spoke. The combination of Head of Household status and the Child Tax Credit was expected to produce a refund in the range of $2,400 to $2,700 — compared to the $490 he got back the previous year.
He also asked his preparer whether he could amend his 2024 return. The window for that remains open — taxpayers generally have three years from the original filing date to file an amended return using IRS Form 1040-X. His preparer is reviewing whether the 2024 custody documentation supports an amendment.
The numbers are not life-changing. Tommy was explicit about that. A $2,600 refund does not erase $22,000 in credit card debt. It does not produce a down payment. But it changes the emotional calculus of a financial situation that had started to feel purely suffocating.
What Tommy Wishes He Had Known Earlier
Sitting across from Tommy, it was difficult not to think about the compounding effect of two years of under-filing. If his 2023 and 2024 returns had also included Head of Household status and appropriate credits — assuming the custody documentation supported it — he might have recovered somewhere in the range of $3,000 to $4,000 more over those two years. That is not money he will necessarily get back, depending on what the amendment review finds.
He identified a few things he said he wished someone had told him at the point of divorce:
- That filing status does not automatically reset to Single — it depends on your custody agreement language and living situation
- That the right to claim a child as a dependent can be negotiated in the divorce settlement and should be reviewed with a tax professional, not just a divorce attorney
- That child support payments are not deductible, which surprised him — he had assumed they functioned similarly to alimony, which had its own rule changes under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
- That a CPA familiar with post-divorce taxation is different from a general tax preparer, and the difference can be worth the higher cost
Tommy has not resolved his financial situation. He is still renting. He still carries the $22,000 in credit card debt, now reduced to approximately $18,400 after three years of minimum-plus payments. He still spends more than he should when his kids are with him, and he still doesn’t apologize for it.
When I left the diner that morning, Tommy was going over a checklist his preparer had sent him — documents needed to finalize the 2025 return before April 15. He had his custody agreement printed out and highlighted. For the first time in three tax seasons, he said, he actually felt like he understood what he was signing.
That is a small thing. But in the aftermath of a divorce that cost him a house, $22,000, and the daily presence of his children, small things are the ones that are left.
Vivienne Marlowe Reyes is a Senior Tax & Stimulus Writer at American Relief. This article reflects one individual’s reported experience and does not constitute tax or financial advice. Readers should consult a qualified tax professional regarding their specific circumstances.
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