Can I be claimed as a dependent?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 2, 2022
2 replies
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I am 20 years old mother, living with my father. I currently make around 10,000 a year. I also am in school full-time, but the classes are all online. I read on the IRS website, that you can be 24 and under in college, as long as you were in person and the courses weren’t only online. I am not sure what to make of it. I will try to add it in as a picture or link. I went to Elgin Community College, so I’m not sure if the college I went to makes a difference.

LeonardS

Yes, you can be claimed as a dependent if you meet the following six tests [IRC Sec. 152(c)]:

Relationship.
Age.
Residency.
Support.
Joint return.
Tie-breaker test if the child is the qualifying child of more than one person.

Relationship test. The child must be the taxpayer’s:

•Son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, grandchild) or

•Brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, niece or nephew).

Adopted child. An individual legally adopted by the taxpayer or an individual lawfully placed with the taxpayer for legal adoption is treated as a child by blood.

Eligible foster child. An eligible foster child is one placed with the taxpayer by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction.

Age test. The child must be either:

•Under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than the taxpayer (or spouse if MFJ).

•Under age 24 at the end of the year, a full-time student and younger than the taxpayer (or spouse if MFJ). A full-time student is one who is enrolled full-time in school (but not online or correspondence schools) during any part of five calendar months during 2021 or took a full-time course of institutional on-farm training under the supervision of an accredited agency. In Ltr. Rul. 9838027, the IRS allowed the taxpayer to count the month of August when a student registered on August 28 but did not start classes until September 2.

•Any age if totally and permanently disabled.

Residency test. The child must have the same principal residence as the taxpayer for more than half of the tax year. Temporary absences due to special circumstances, including absences due to illness, education, business, vacation, or military service, are ignored.

Support test. The child cannot provide over half of his own support. A full-time student does not take into account taxable or nontaxable scholarship payments received in calculating the support test.

No joint return test. If married, the child must not have filed a joint return. Exception: If the only reason for filing a joint return is to claim a refund, the child meets the test.

Tie-breaker rules—qualifying child of more than one person. It’s possible that a child is the qualifying child of more than one person. In that case, the tie-breaker rules determine who can claim the child as their qualifying child (QC) [IRC Sec. 152(c)(4)].

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Hal_Al

Employee

Your online courses DO count as being a student because they are offered by an "eligible institution", Elgin Community College. Note that the disqualification is not the courses are online but that the school is only online courses.

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test.

A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:

He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are excluded from the support calculation
He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

So, it doesn't matter how much he earned. What matters is how much he spent on support. Money he put into savings does not count as support he spent on him self.

The support value of the home, provided by the parent, is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants.

The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

Furthermore, there is a rule that says IF somebody else CAN claim him as a dependent, he is not allowed to claim himself. If he has sufficient income (usually more than $12,550), he can & should still file taxes. In TurboTax, he indicates that somebody else can claim him as a dependent, at the personal information section. TT will check that box on form 1040.

Even if he had less, he is allowed to file if he needs to get back income tax withholding. He cannot get back social security or Medicare tax withholding.

If you are claimed as a dependent, you will not be able to claim your child, as a dependent, for all the benefits, child tax credit, earned income credit, stimulus. But, you father can claim the child for all the same benefits. There's even a chance that you can double dip on the $1400 dependent stimulus payment That is, if you already got the $1400 for your child in 2021, your father will get $1400 if he claims his grandchild on his 2021 tax return. That's the way it works. The same goes for your $1400.