education expenses

[dongxu0208]

My son is going to graduate school and his school expenses will be $90000/ year, his income is $35000/year, he is 22, can I claim him as dependent?

[DoninGA]

If he is not providing over one-half of his own support then you should be able to claim him as a dependent on your tax return under the Qualifying Child rules provided he meets all the requirements.

To be a Qualifying Child -

1. The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
2. The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year, (b) under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student or (c) any age and permanently and totally disabled.
3. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. Temporary absences while away at college are considered living with you.
4. The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.
5. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child.
6. The child must be a U.S. citizen or U.S., Canada or Mexico resident for some portion of the year.
7. The child must be younger than you unless disabled.

[dongxu0208]

The school expenses include tuition. room and board, health insurance and other fees, are all of these expenses considered support?

Thanks

[DoninGA]

---

@dongxu0208 wrote:

The school expenses include tuition. room and board, health insurance and other fees, are all of these expenses considered support?

Thanks

---

If he is paying for his own expense with his own funds for education, including room and board, health insurance plus other expenses that would appear to cover a majority of his personal support.

Go to this IRS website for a support worksheet - https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

[Hal_Al]

Q. The school expenses include tuition. room and board, health insurance and other fees, are all of these expenses considered support?

A. Yes.

Q. My son is going to graduate school and his school expenses will be $90000/ year, his income is $35000/year, he is 22, can I claim him as dependent?

A. Yes, if he meets the rules to be a "Qualifying Child".  His income is too high for the alternate "Qualifying Relative" rules. 

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.

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 excluded from the support calculation
3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

So, it doesn't matter how much he earned. What matters is how much he spent on support. Money he put into savings does not count as support he spent on himself.

The support value of the home, provided by the parent, is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants.

The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

See full dependent rules at: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Family/Rules-for-Claiming-a-Dependent-on-Your-Tax-Ret...