My daughter is 22yrs. at her Sr year, 2019, she used leave of absence march 2019. Can she be qualified as full time student 2019 based on school year 2018-2019?

[Bsch4477]

The basis for attendance is per year.  She is full time if she attended as a full time student (as judged by the school) any part of at least 5 months during the year.  The months do not have to be consecutive.  Attendance in 2018 does not apply to 2019.

[Hal_Al]

If she was only a student from January to March, she was not a full time student for 2019, for purposes of claiming her as a dependent* under the  Qualifying Child rules.  

For purposes of her claiming the refundable portion of the American Opportunity Credit, on her own return, , she was not a full time student for 2019.

For purposes of you or her claiming a tuition credit, she was a half time or more student for Jan.-Mar and tuition paid for that counts for the credit.  She does not have to be full time.

*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 test, a relationship test and a residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit. The Other dependent (qualifying relative) credit is worth (up to) $500 per dependent and is non-refundable.  That is, it can only be used to reduce an actual tax liability.

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 (not even one night at the non-custodial parent’s home).
2. His/her gross taxable income for the year must be less than $4200 ($4150 in 2018)
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

[Carl]

As an addendum to the other responses, understand this:
Colleges work in academic years, while the IRS works in calendar years. So whatever occurred in 2018 just flat out does not apply to your 2019 tax return in any way, form or fashion.

With the above information you now understand that it takes 5 calendar tax years to obtain that 4 year degree. So that's why you want to pay for that senior year last semester "before" that 5th calendar year starts. Remember, education expenses are claimed in the tax year they are paid and it flat out does not matter what tax year is paid *for*.

So if you claimed the AOTC for her first four years in college (2015-2018) you do not qualify for the AOTC for 2019. (But you may qualify for the lifetime learning credit which is a max of $2000)

But from what I see, since she did not attend as a full time student for at least 5 months (the months do not have to be consecutive either) she does not qualify as a full time student.

Finally, for a student that was enrolled for that final senior year semester that graduated on May 1, you get to count the entire month of May as one of the 5 months. But if their grad date was Apr 30th, then you only have 4 months as a full time student.