It depends on a couple more details. How much income did you have and when did you move out.
Since your mother provided more than half your support, she can definitely claim you as long as your income for the year was less than $4050.
Even if your income was more than $4050, she can still claim you if you lived with her for more than half the year.
FULL RULES
A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:
1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are considered third party support and not as support provided by the student.
3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year.
There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("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, a relationship test and a residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit.
A person can still be a Qualifying relative dependent, if not a Qualifying Child, if he meets the 6 tests for claiming a dependent:
1. Closely Related OR live with the taxpayer ALL year
2. His/her gross taxable income for the year must be less than $4,050 (2016)
3. The taxpayer must have provided more than 1/2 his support
In either case:
4. He must be a US citizen or resident of the US, Canada or Mexico
5. He must not file a joint return with his spouse or be claiming a dependent of his own
6. He must not be the qualifying child of another taxpayer
It depends on a couple more details. How much income did you have and when did you move out.
Since your mother provided more than half your support, she can definitely claim you as long as your income for the year was less than $4050.
Even if your income was more than $4050, she can still claim you if you lived with her for more than half the year.
FULL RULES
A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:
1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are considered third party support and not as support provided by the student.
3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year.
There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("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, a relationship test and a residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit.
A person can still be a Qualifying relative dependent, if not a Qualifying Child, if he meets the 6 tests for claiming a dependent:
1. Closely Related OR live with the taxpayer ALL year
2. His/her gross taxable income for the year must be less than $4,050 (2016)
3. The taxpayer must have provided more than 1/2 his support
In either case:
4. He must be a US citizen or resident of the US, Canada or Mexico
5. He must not file a joint return with his spouse or be claiming a dependent of his own
6. He must not be the qualifying child of another taxpayer
"if I decide to move out" Sounds like it hasn't happened.
It hasn’t yet, but I don’t want to move out if it’s going to affect her claiming me as a dependent .
Moving out MAY affect her claiming you and for how much. As long as you are not working, she can still claim you as a dependent, after you move out. But is she is currently getting the Earned Income Credit, she will lose that.
Taxes are complicated; but the simple answer: for your mother's taxes, it's better is you are living at home. She (and you) can use this tool to compare the results: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1">https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1</a>.
Hal-Al, so long as they were under the age of 23 on Dec 31 of the tax year and a full time student, their earnings don't matter. There is no limit on the student's earnings.
There is no limit on the under 24 student's earnings, as long as he/she is living at home with the parent. If they move out before July 3, the income test kicks in.
"But is [if ] she is currently getting the Earned Income Credit, she will lose that."
@Hal_Al Please explain. I don't think that's true.
Generally, a student living away from home for the primary purpose of attending school is considered to have lived with you for the entire year. So if you are moving out for some other purpose and attending school is not the *primary* reason for moving out, then you did not live with her the entire year. That alone is enough to disqualify her from claiming you as a dependent.
I agree with Carl. OP is attending Community College, so most likely is living near her school anyway.
No. That (moving out) alone will not disqualify the student from being a DEPENDENT. It will only disqualify him from being a Qualifying Child (QC). He can still be a Qualifying Relative (QR) dependent.
Mom will lose the EIC when the student goes from being a Qualifying Child to Qualifying Relative. Or, at least the child related portion of the EIC. Or more specifically the portion related to that particular child. So, yes, it's an over simplification to say Mom will lose the EIC. She may have other qualifying children and/or income low enough to qualify on her own. It's safe to say her EIC will be reduced and most likely, significantly.
Once again, we don't have all the facts. I assumed the student was going to school locally. Carl is correct, if he is living away from home for the primary purpose of attending an out of town school, he is considered to still be living with the parent and can be a QC
Here's the rules on this, since you were a full time college student for at least one semester that started in the tax year. But let me reiterate this. Pay attention to the details in the below rules, because there is *NO REQUIREMENT WHAT-SO-EVER* for your parents to provide you any support. Not One Penny. The support requirement is on the student and ONLY the student. On top of that, scholarships, grants, 1099-Q funds, giftss from Aunt Mary, etc, flat out do NOT count for providing your own support.
College Education Expenses
Colleges work in academic years, while the IRS works in calendar years. So the reality is, it takes you 5 calendar years to get that 4 year degree. With that said:
- Scholarships and grants are claimed/reported as taxable income (initially) in the year they are received. It does not matter what year that scholarship or grant is *for*
- Tuition and other qualified education expenses are reported/claimed in the tax year they are paid. It does not matter what year they pay *for*.
Understand that figuring out who claims the student as a dependent, and determining who claims the education expenses & credits, is two different determinations. It depends on the specific situation as outlined below. After you read it, I have also attached a chart at the bottom. You can click on the chart to enlarge it so you can read it. If it’s still to hard to read on your screen then right-click on the enlarged image and elect to save it to your computer. Then you can double-click the saved image file on your computer to open it, and it will be even easier to read.
Here’s the general rules gisted from IRS Publication 970 at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf Some words are in bold, italicized, or capitalized just for emphasis. This is because correct interpretation by the reader is everything. Take the below contents LITERALLY, and do not try to “read between the lines”. If you do, you’ll interpret it incorrectly and risk reporting things wrong on your taxes. For example, there is a vast difference between “can be claimed” and “must be claimed”. The first one indicates a choice. The second one provides no choice.
If the student:
Is under the age of 24 on Dec 31 of the tax year and:
Is enrolled in an undergraduate program at an accredited institution and:
Is enrolled as a full time student for one academic semester that begins during the tax year, (each institution has their own definition of a half time student) and:
the STUDENT did NOT provide more that 50% of the STUDENT’S support (schollarships/grants received by the student ***do not count*** as the student providing their own support)
Now I don't know how many times I've posted this in this forum, but some apparently don't quite get the above sentence, don't see it, or have comprehension issues. So for your own sanity and to avoid the audit you will experience if you don't get it, please go back and read it again to make sure you understand it. It is the MOST IMPORTANT part of this entire response.
Then:
The parents will claim the student as a dependent on the parent's tax return and:
The parents will claim all schollarships, grants, tuition payments, and the student's 1098-T on the parent's tax return and:
The parents will claim all educational tax credits that qualify.
If the student will be filing a tax return and:
The parents qualify to claim the student as a dependent, then:
The student must select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's return", on the student's tax return. The student must select this option even f the parent's qualify to claim the student as a dependent, and the parents do not claim them.
Now here’s some additional information that may or may not affect who files the 1098-T. If the amount of scholarships/grants exceeds the amount of qualified education expenses, the parent will know this when reporting the education on their tax return, because the parent will not qualify for any of the tax credits. (They only qualify for tax credits based on out-of-pocket qualified expenses not covered by scholarships/grants.) Also, the parent’s will not qualify for the credits depending on their MAGI which is different for each credit, and depends on the marital status of the parent or parents.
In the case where scholarships/grants covers “all” qualified education expenses, the parent’s don’t need to report educational information on their dependent student at all – but they still claim the student as a dependent if they “qualify” to claim the student.
If the scholarships/grants exceed the qualified education expenses, then the student will report the 1098-T and all other educational expenses and scholarships/grants on the student’s tax return. The student will pay taxes on the amount of scholarships/grants that are not used for qualified education expenses. However, if the student’s earned income reported on a W-2, when added to the excess scholarships/grants does NOT exceed $6200, then the student doesn’t even need to file a tax return, and nothing has to be reported.
If the student has any other taxable income not reported on a W-2, and it exceeds $400, (not including taxable portion of scholarships/grants) then most likely it’s considered self-employment income. That will require a tax return to be filed and the student will have to pay the Self-Employment tax on that income.
Finally, regardless of the student’s W-2 earnings, if any taxes were withheld on those earnings and it was less than $6200, then the student should file a tax return so as to get those withheld taxes refunded.
1099-Q Funds
First, scholarships & grants are applied to qualified education expenses. The only qualified expenses for scholarships and grants are tuition, books, and lab fees. that's it. If there is any excess, then it's taxable income. It automatically gets transferred as follows depending on what type of 1040 you’re riling.
1040-EZ excess scholarship
income is included on line 1.
1040-A excess scholarship is included on line 7.
1040 Excess scholarhip is included on line 7.
Next, 529/Coverdell funds reported on 1099-Q are applied to qualified education expenses. The qualified expenses for 1099-Q funds are tuition, books, lab fees, AND room & board. That's it. If there are any excess 1099-Q funds they are taxable. The amount is transferred as indicated above with one exception. For the 1040 excess ESA/QTP funds get transferred to line 21 with the annotation “SCH” next to it.
Finally, out of pocket money is applied to qualified education expenses. The only qualified expenses for out of pocket money is tuition, books, and lab fees. Room & board is NOT a qualified expense for out of pocket money.
When you have a 1099-Q it is extremely important that you work through the education section of the program in the order it is designed and intended to be used. If you do not, then there is a high probability that you will not be asked for room & board expenses, and you could therefore be TAXED on your 1099-Q funds.
Finally, if "all" qualified expenses are covered by scholarships, grants, 1099-Q funds and there is ANY of those funds left over, the left over excess is taxable. While the parent can still claim the student as a dependent, it is the student who will report all the education stuff on the student's tax return. That's because the STUDENT pays the taxes on any excess scholarships, grants and 1099-Q funds.