21 yr old college student claims Independent but no stimulus check

[Trinacrystal]

My daughter is 21 years old and she is a college student.  She rents a room and works.. she supports herself %100.  As of 2016 when she was 17 i stopped claiming her as dependent.  She stayed with a family member for less than a year. In 2018 she was supporting herself %100 living on her own,  working, and going to school.  She filed taxes as independent for 2018 and 2019. She has not received a stimulus check yet.  When she checks the get my payment on IRS website it says not available. I was thinking the only explanation is if the family member she stayed with is claiming her as a dependent but when she had filed 2019 taxes (prior to the pandemic)  it was accepted so she is not being claimed as dependent. She has tried to figure out why she didn't receive it and at this point she is assuming it is because she got a student grant for college prior to the pandemic.  Is that possible that she doesn't qualify do to a student grant she received for college? She doesn't know what to do from here so I am trying to help her to figure out if she does qualify or what she needs to do to receive the stimulus.  Can you please help me. Does she qualify or does she not qualify? If she does what does she need to do from here? Thank you so much for your help

[Carl]

she supports herself %100

Let's clarify that. If the student receives *any* third party income, such as scholarships, grants, 529 distributions, etc., then the student does not support themselves 100%. Yet the student "may" still qualify to file as independent. Here's the "plain english" on this, taken from IRS Publication 970.

If the student:

 - Is under the age of 24 on Dec 31 of the tax year and:

 - is enrolled in an accredited institution of higher learning and;

 - is enrolled as a full time student for *any* *one* *semester* that started in the tax year and;

 - is enrolled in s course of study that will lead to a degree or credentialed certification and;

 - did *NOT* provide more than 50% of their own support for the entire tax year, (scholarships, grants, 529 distributions and any other third party income do not count for the student providing their own support) then;

The parent qualifies to claim the student as a dependent on the parent's tax return.

There are only two possible ways the student can have any claim to providing more than half of their own support.

 1) The student is self-employed or has a W-2 job and earned enough money during the tax year to justify a claim to providing more than half of their own support. The money earned by the student also has to exceed the total of all third party income. Keep in mind also that all costs claimed must be reasonable. For example, it's not realistic or reasonable that an undergraduate college student would be living in a $5000/mo penthouse suite while attending college either.

2) The student (not the parent) is the *primary* borrower on a *qualified* student loan and sufficient funds were distributed to the student during the tax year to justify a claim to providing more than half their own support. Loan funds distributed during the tax year also need to be more than the total of all 3rd party income received by the student during the same tax year.

So if the amount of third party income received by the student during the tax year exceeds the total of the student's earned income or borrowed monies, the student qualifies as a dependent on the parent's tax return. It does not matter if their parent's actually claim the student or not, either. The key word is "qualify".  Enough of that.

So assuming your student did in fact, provide more than half of their own support *for the entire tax year*, understand that the stimulus is based on one's 2020 tax filing status. So when the student files their 2020 tax return next year, that is when the IRS will "settle up", and not before.

Also understand that the stimulus is not a freebie per-se. It's an advance on the 2020 tax refund. So when you file your 2020 taxes if what you will get back from the IRS is *LESS* than the stimulus you received, you will not have to pay back any difference. The IRS will basically just "forgive it". But what's not clear is if the forgiven amount will be counted as taxable income for 2020. Apparently, those details are still being worked out.