STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Yes....the chronicles of BQ's disfunctional family (by marriage) continues....

Many of you are aware that DH's youngest 9 year old brother was in our care ALL of last year as his mom moved out of the country to be with her new husband.  We took c/o him as if he was our own child, went to all teacher conferences, school functions, back to school shopping, vacations, birthday celebrations/holidays, even emergency room visits.  Everytime this woman called she never asked for him, only asked DH to send her $.  His father, BTW, only gave him $2 a month, so no help there.

So she came back in January to take him back because she said she would after her living/work arrangements were settled.  DH was planning on claiming him as a dependent on his '07 taxes anyway as he obviously was in our care, but his mother let him know he could just in case.  (I have always claimed our DD).

Later that week, we find out that instead of taking him like she planned, she's now leaving the 9 yr old BIL with DH's half-brother! Not just that, but both DH's half-brother and my MIL have taken the liberty to RUN to get half-brother's taxes done and not only claim 9yr old BIL but also MIL as dependents!  I say RUN because this all happened within 24 hours of her reminding DH to claim 9yr old BIL and literally waited over 4 hours in a busy tax filing office until 9PM while she had my DD with them.

I don't know what it is with DH that he turns into a complete tool and dimwit when it comes to his family taking him for a fool.  His mom tells him the next day not to claim his brother the next day, DH says, "ok", does his taxes and comes back and tells me, "Guess what, Im getting a refund of XXX this year".  I ask him why so little since I made more than DH did on paper and I was getting back A LOT more than him.  Not just that, but with his brother as a dependent he would have qualified for additional tax credits that I cannot due to my salary/bonuses.  So I was completely caught off guard when he told me what his family did. 

Anyway.....long story short, I convinced DH to confront his half-brother and tell him he was reporting him to the IRS for fraud and claiming people he never took in his care.  His half-brother convinced DH that he would give him the portion he would have received for claiming his little brother.  He gave him half the $.  DH said he would let it go, that he never took c/o his little brother for any financial or personal gain of his own and that sooner or later his half-brother and mother would pay in their own way for doing what they did.

So here's why I'm sharing this.....I find out today that they (half-brother in law and his wife) received over $6K for claiming both MIL and 9yr old BIL.  PLUS they will be receiving money in late July from the Economic Stimulus thing that everyone will be receiving based on the taxes filed for 2007.  They are currently "in the market" for a new home and putting all the the cash they got "free" towards it.  They know how hard DH and I have been waiting and saving to afford and buy a home and due to their fraudulent tax filings and screwing DH over, they will be using those earning to buy themselves a home.  And yes, they MIL left 9 yr old BIL in their care, while she took a chunk out of their scam and went back to her new husband in his country to live care free.

I'm so disgusted with the whole thing, and there's really no advice I'm seeking, but I just had to vent to someone...