Hi, I have a tax question. I've been married to my husband for over 2 years, we've always filed married filing separate because we live in 2 different states, and I get a w-2 while he's self employed. I don't know his tax situation, but I know he got audited once by the IRS and didn't receive his refund. Also, he has a child support order, and I don't know if they can garnish his tax refund, so I'm reluctant to file taxes together.

We had a baby this year and the baby has always lived with me, in my house (mortgage in my name bought before we met), I pay all bills associated with her welfare, except daycare costs ($1000+/month), I make him pay for. Now it's tax time again, we still live in 2 separate states, and I want to file by myself because I don't know his tax status, I want to get all the refund I'm due since I pay taxes from my w-2.

I searched online and saw I can claim married filing separate as head of household. Which I'd like to do, however, I want my husband to be able to claim the daycare costs he's paid since when I had to put the baby in daycare when I returned to work after my leave. How can he file his taxes to be able to claim these costs? Thanks