The 1984 Tax Reform Act allows the parties to agree as to who can claim the children as exemptions for income tax purposes. Without a written agreement, the parent who has physical custody of the child for more than half the year will get the dependency exemption. Even a small increase in child support would help offset the tax increase paid by the custodial parent, and the other parent can better afford such an increase due to the taxes he or she saves by claiming the exemption on federal and state tax returns. Or the father could claim one child and the mother could claim the other. Such alternation would lessen the impact of higher taxes on the custodial parent.
Contempt of court is the failure to obey a court order without legal justification.
It is not contempt of court to violate a separation agreement unless the agreement has been made a part of a court order. You may, however, sue your spouse for breach of contract if he or she violates the separation agreement. A separation agreement is a contract between spouses. If, however, our spouse promises to pay a bill and then breaks that promise, resulting in your having to pay, you can sue your spouse for breach of contract for the amount of money you had to pay. If the problem is one of physical violence, a court order would be better than a separation agreement and could be used to punish the wrongdoer if he or she violated the order.