Education Credit

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 28, 2022
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We have been claiming our son on our taxes since birth. as of 12/31/2021 he is 24 years old. He has finished his first 4 years of college and is not in grad school. Last year and this year when I entered that he was still a dependent of ours and I put in his tuition, he received the Lifetime Learning credit of $2,000 (for 2021). When I was speaking with a friend who does taxes for a living she told me that I could not claim him as a dependent and that I could NOT claim the education credit, since he is over 23 years old. He does not have any earned income himself.

If this is true why does TurboTax say that we can claim him and his education credits?

Thanks for your help.

tmunoz

It is true that you cannot claim your son as a qualifying child dependent, if he has reached the age of 24 and is not permanently disabled, so your friend is right about that.

However, it sounds like you may be able to claim him as a qualifying relative dependent and if that is the case, you may indeed be eligible for the Lifetime Learning Credit which says, "The eligible student is you, your spouse, or a dependent on your tax return." It does not specify which type of dependent.

Here is a TurboTax Help article with a quick checklist to double check if he is a qualifying relative. Qualifying Dependents

Hal_Al

Employee

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("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.

Since he is over 23, you only claim him as a Qualifying Relative if he has less than $4300 of gross income (not just earned income). You must also have provided more than half his support. If he qualifies as your dependent, then you also claim the tuition credit.

In the TurboTax TT) interview, when TT detects his age, it will ask both the income and support questions to see if he qualifies as your dependent. In past years (when he was under age24), it did not ask those questions (there was a slightly different support question).