Can I Claim My College-Age Child on My Tax Return?
If you're still paying more than half of the expenses of your adult child attending college, you may wish to claim her as a dependent on your taxes, even if she is a legal adult. The Internal Revenue Service allows parents to claim a college-age child as a dependent, as long as the child meets certain eligibility requirements.
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Parent's Dependent Status
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If you intend to claim your child as a dependent, you must be able to file as single, head of household, or married filing jointly. If anyone else can claim you as a dependent on his tax return, you can't claim any dependents on your own. Additionally, if you're married and filing jointly, and anyone can claim your spouse as a dependent on a tax return, you won't be able to claim your child as a dependent.
Residency Requirements
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The student you wish to claim as a dependent must have legal residence status in the U.S. This means she must be a citizen or resident national of the country. You may also claim your child if she is a legal resident of Canada or Mexico. The IRS doesn't allow you to claim a non-resident alien as a dependent on your tax return.
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Age and Attendance
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For the IRS to consider your child eligible as a dependent college student, he must be no older than 24 years of age and attending college full-time. Once your child turns 25, you can't claim him as a dependent on your return as a college student, even if he is still attending college full-time. If your child is 25 or older and still dependent on your support, you can still claim him as a dependent, provided that (as of 2010) he earned less than $3,200 in income the entire year and depended on your financial support for more than half of his expenses. Age is a non-issue if your child is permanently and totally disabled.
Marital Status
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You can claim a married child attending school full-time as a dependent on your taxes if the child's tax status meets certain eligibility requirements. She must not file her taxes as married filing jointly, unless she's expecting a refund. Additionally, if she's married and filing jointly, neither she nor her spouse can have any tax liability, had they filed as separate individuals. Otherwise, your college-age child is ineligible for dependent status on your tax return.
Relationship and Living Arrangements
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To qualify as a college-age dependent, your child must be a member of your immediate family. He must be your son, daughter, step-son or step-daughter, foster child, sibling or step-sibling. Any children of these relationships, such as your niece, nephew or grandchild, also qualify as college-age dependents on your taxes. The dependent must have lived with you for six or more months of the entire tax year. The IRS counts the time the dependent lived away at college as living with you.
Support
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The trickiest part of determining eligibility for tax dependent status of a college-age child is determining whether you provided more than half the support for his financial expenses. Add up any and all expenditures you incurred during the year in support of your child. Include a portion of your home mortgage or rent if your child doesn't pay you rent, since this does count as support. Also include a portion of your food and utility bills if your child lived with you and obtained his food from you.
Tuition and Scholarships
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If your child receives student loans for his education, the IRS counts total amount of that loan as the child's income, even if it was spent entirely on tuition. You must prove your financial support consisted of at least half of your child's expenses. If she received $10,000 in loans and earned another $2,000 from a part time job, the IRS will consider her income to be $12,000. You must show her expenses for the year were at least $24,000 and that you paid for at least half of that.
The IRS doesn't count scholarships or grants your child doesn't have to pay back as the child's income. Also, if you take out loans on behalf of your child to help her pay for her college tuition, the IRS will allow that as an expense you paid in her support.
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References
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Comments
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It's my understanding that the student is no longer deductible in the year s/he turns 24, not 25. Am I missing something or is what's written in this article an error? "For the IRS to consider your child eligible as a dependent college student, he must be no older than 24 years of age and attending college full-time. Once your child turns 25, you can't claim him as a dependent on your return as a college student..."
