If student lives solely off of student loan proceeds and unemployment due to pandemic, can student claim themselves?

[avsilverwolf]

Ironically, this unemployment was from a job in which the number of actual days worked was about a week...student had just finished up required training for the job before everyone was put on lockdown.

As parents we have contributed zilch to living expenses, so I believe our kiddo qualifies to claim himself this year.

[ThomasM125]

The main requirement for an individual to be considered your dependent is if you provide over 1/2 of their support. So if your child received more than half of his support from sources besides his parents, then he would not qualify as their dependent. As such, he could indicate that he does not appear as a dependent on anyone else's tax return, which may entitle him to benefits, such as stimulus payments.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

It depends on several things.  Student loans are considered self support by the student, UNLESS the parent co-signed or the loan it is in the parent's name.

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, student status, a relationship test and residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit. They are interrelated but the rules are different for each.

The support test is different for each type. The support test, for a QC, is only that the child didn't provide more than half his own support . The support test for a Qualifying Relative is that the taxpayer provided more than half the relative's support.

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

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 him self.

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