Does the 5 months min of Full time school enrollment count if I graduated just after the beginning of the 5th month?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 13, 2022
3 replies
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I finished my last semester of college in 2021 and graduation was May 7th. I am tying to determine how to answer yes or no for being in school for at least 5 months during the year

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Hal_Al

Employee

Yes. Yours is a very common situation.

The next question usually is: can the parents still claim the student/child as a dependent?

Graduation year (written as if the parent asked the question)

If he/she was a student (under 24) for at least 5 months and lived with you for more than half the year, and did not provide more than 1/2 his own support for the whole year, you can still claim him. Be sure he knows you're claiming him, so he doesn't claim himself. He can only be claimed once. But, he can "file taxes" without claiming his own exemption.

The real question is who should be claiming him in this "transition" year to adulthood. You two have to agree on who is going to claim his exemption. Each should do their taxes both ways and see which way the family comes out best. Even then, you have to meet the rules. The rule is that a child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” dependent, regardless of his income, if:

he is a full time student under 24 for at least 5 calendar months of the year (graduating in May usually means you meet the 5 month rule)
he did not provide more than 1/2 his own support (scholarships are considered 3rd party support and not support provided by the student).
lived with the parent (including time away at school) for more than half the year

So, it usually hinges on "Did he provide more than 1/2 his own support in 2021.

The support value of the home you provided is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants. IRS Publication 501 on page 20 has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf (page 15)

DoninGA

Employee

Yes, as long as you were a full time student for at least one day of the month during any 5 months of the year.

Foozy

If classes are January through April and exams finished in April is the student enrolled for four months. EVen if the ceremony is in May?

MonikaK1

For the purpose of determining whether a parent can claim a child under 24 as a dependent, a full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses that the school considers to be full-time attendance.

To qualify as a student, the person must be, during some part of each of any five calendar months of the year:

A full-time student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study, and a regularly enrolled student body at the school, or
A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1), or by a state, county, or local government agency.

The five calendar months do not have to be consecutive.

This information is found in the Personal Exemptions and Dependents chapter of Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax.

You might check with the school as to whether they consider those enrolled full-time students until after May 1st. Otherwise, it sounds as if the program of study was completed before May 1st.

See this TurboTax tips article for more information regarding claiming dependents.

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