Claiming Child As Dependent

[princessleia]

I am very confused as to whether I can claim my child for 2019; the year she graduated and got her own job and her own place (her income for 2019 would be $15K) We paid for her tuition and support for the first half of the year. I checked the irs dependency test and the second question stymied me. Is my daughter considered a full-time student in 2019; the year she graduated? Appreciate input from other parents who have gone through this...

From IRS
Qualifying child

In addition to the qualifications above, to claim an exemption for your child, you must be able to answer "yes" to all of the following questions.



Are they related to you? The child can be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, adopted child or an offspring of any of them.

Do they meet the age requirement? Your child must be under age 19 or, if a full-time student, under age 24. There is no age limit if your child is permanently and totally disabled.

Do they live with you? Your child must live with you for more than half the year, but several exceptions apply.

Do you financially support them? Your child may have a job, but that job cannot provide more than half of her support.

Are you the only person claiming them? This requirement commonly applies to children of divorced parents. Here you must use the “tie breaker rules,” which are found in IRS Publication 501. These rules establish income, parentage and residency requirements for claiming a child.

[Deleted]

They only have to be a student 5 months of the year to be considered a full-time student.

To qualify as a student, the child must be enrolled in the number of hours or courses the school considers full-time during some part of at least five months of the year.

apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/4491_dependency_exemptions.pdf

[CCL]

They need to be a full-time student 5 months of the year.

Found this on irs.gov:

apps.irs.gov/app/IPAR/resources/help/ftstud.html

[princessleia]

Thanks for the replies. Now comes the 3rd question on the list:-

Do you financially support them? Your child may have a job, but that job cannot provide more than half of her support.

What does it mean? My child probably earned $15K on her 2019 income so does it mean my support (what I shelled out) have to come to $30K

[oped]

Jan 22, 2020 7:12:14 GMT -5 princessleia said:

Thanks for the replies. Now comes the 3rd question on the list:-

Do you financially support them? Your child may have a job, but that job cannot provide more than half of her support.

What does it mean? My child probably earned $15K on her 2019 income so does it mean my support (what I shelled out) have to come to $30K

No I would think it means you have to have paid 15k.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't get hung up on the dollar amounts at all.  Who paid for her room and board the majority of the year?   As in 6 months and 1 days worth?  Sounds like you. 

[princessleia]

Jan 22, 2020 8:56:49 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I wouldn't get hung up on the dollar amounts at all.  Who paid for her room and board the majority of the year?   As in 6 months and 1 days worth?  Sounds like you. 

the problem is it is split up half half. She graduated midway in 2019 and she started her job midway in the year. So, is there a majority? No. 

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2020 11:42:38 GMT -5 princessleia said:

Jan 22, 2020 8:56:49 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I wouldn't get hung up on the dollar amounts at all.  Who paid for her room and board the majority of the year?   As in 6 months and 1 days worth?  Sounds like you. 

the problem is it is split up half half. She graduated midway in 2019 and she started her job midway in the year. So, is there a majority? No. 

So, she graduated and got her own apartment and started paying all her own bills right at the 6 month mark?  You didn't help her at all the second half of the year?

Really, you're overthinking this anyhow because the IRS doesn't care if you claim her or she claims herself in a situation like this.  The only time this would become an issue is if your daughter stated that nobody else could claim her as a dependent on her return and the IRS was forced to investigate and decide who was in the right.

Personally, I'd run the returns both ways and see which way comes out better for everyone. 

[Deleted]

Here's the worksheet if you want to calculate it all out.  Since education expenses are included in determining support, I'm guessing her first half of the year when you were paying her bills was a lot more expensive than the second half. 

apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

[TheOtherMe]

The worksheet is the best way to calculate it.  

This is not based on time, it is based on $$$.

Depending on who was paying for college, she most likely did not pay over half of her support.   

[justme]

Doesn't it mean you get their standard deduction and not themselves if they're claimed? If so - I would work with your daughter and figure out which works best (most likely for her). I started my first real job in June. It was right on the edge of whether my parents truly paid for me for half the year or not. Honestly they never even mentioned about trying to claim me, but I think it would have hurt me a lot if they did tax wise. Which when I first started out would have been a lot of money for me.

[princessleia]

Jan 22, 2020 12:27:02 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Here's the worksheet if you want to calculate it all out.  Since education expenses are included in determining support, I'm guessing her first half of the year when you were paying her bills was a lot more expensive than the second half. 

apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

Thanks for the link. You are right, I paid out more.

[princessleia]

Jan 22, 2020 14:21:14 GMT -5 justme said:

Doesn't it mean you get their standard deduction and not themselves if they're claimed? If so - I would work with your daughter and figure out which works best (most likely for her). I started my first real job in June. It was right on the edge of whether my parents truly paid for me for half the year or not. Honestly they never even mentioned about trying to claim me, but I think it would have hurt me a lot if they did tax wise. Which when I first started out would have been a lot of money for me.

I think what I am going to do is to run both scenarios (me not claiming her and me claiming her) on my tax returns and hers too (one as a independent and one as dependent) and see how it pans out. I will pay her tax penalty and additional taxes if she does incur any if it works out better that she be a dependent.

[princessleia]

Jan 22, 2020 11:57:52 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jan 22, 2020 11:42:38 GMT -5 princessleia said:

the problem is it is split up half half. She graduated midway in 2019 and she started her job midway in the year. So, is there a majority? No. 

So, she graduated and got her own apartment and started paying all her own bills right at the 6 month mark?  You didn't help her at all the second half of the year?

Really, you're overthinking this anyhow because the IRS doesn't care if you claim her or she claims herself in a situation like this.  The only time this would become an issue is if your daughter stated that nobody else could claim her as a dependent on her return and the IRS was forced to investigate and decide who was in the right.

Personally, I'd run the returns both ways and see which way comes out better for everyone. 

Good suggestion. Thank you, MPL! 

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2020 14:21:14 GMT -5 justme said:

Doesn't it mean you get their standard deduction and not themselves if they're claimed? If so - I would work with your daughter and figure out which works best (most likely for her). I started my first real job in June. It was right on the edge of whether my parents truly paid for me for half the year or not. Honestly they never even mentioned about trying to claim me, but I think it would have hurt me a lot if they did tax wise. Which when I first started out would have been a lot of money for me.

There aren't personal exemptions anymore, so the only advantage OP has for claiming her daughter are claiming education credits if they're doing that and the $500 non-child dependent credit.  The daughter still gets to claim up to the standard deduction on her earned income. 

For 2019, the standard deduction amount for an individual who may be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer cannot exceed the greater of $1,100 or the sum of $350 and the individual’s earned income (not to exceed the regular standard deduction amount).

[justme]

Jan 22, 2020 15:19:39 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jan 22, 2020 14:21:14 GMT -5 justme said:

Doesn't it mean you get their standard deduction and not themselves if they're claimed? If so - I would work with your daughter and figure out which works best (most likely for her). I started my first real job in June. It was right on the edge of whether my parents truly paid for me for half the year or not. Honestly they never even mentioned about trying to claim me, but I think it would have hurt me a lot if they did tax wise. Which when I first started out would have been a lot of money for me.

There aren't personal exemptions anymore, so the only advantage OP has for claiming her daughter are claiming education credits if they're doing that and the $500 non-child dependent credit.  The daughter still gets to claim up to the standard deduction on her earned income. 

For 2019, the standard deduction amount for an individual who may be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer cannot exceed the greater of $1,100 or the sum of $350 and the individual’s earned income (not to exceed the regular standard deduction amount).

Yeah, I was googling trying to figure out how it worked now. But I gave up. I assumed if she was independent the daughter would get the $12k to deduct from her income, but if she was a dependent she wouldn't get the $12k. But that might not be right and I didn't care enough to keep trying to find out the answer. 

[alabamagal]

Jan 22, 2020 14:49:53 GMT -5 princessleia said:

Jan 22, 2020 14:21:14 GMT -5 justme said:

Doesn't it mean you get their standard deduction and not themselves if they're claimed? If so - I would work with your daughter and figure out which works best (most likely for her). I started my first real job in June. It was right on the edge of whether my parents truly paid for me for half the year or not. Honestly they never even mentioned about trying to claim me, but I think it would have hurt me a lot if they did tax wise. Which when I first started out would have been a lot of money for me.

I think what I am going to do is to run both scenarios (me not claiming her and me claiming her) on my tax returns and hers too (one as a independent and one as dependent) and see how it pans out. I will pay her tax penalty and additional taxes if she does incur any if it works out better that she be a dependent.

That is what I did the year my youngest graduated. His graduation was May 6 so I figured that meant he was in school for 5 months that year. My others graduated in Aug and Dec so I claimed them that year also.

[TheOtherMe]

For a student, any part of a month counts as a month.

There is still the support test to deal with.