What are qualifying support expenses when claiming a dependent college student?

[tsc777]

My daughter must pay more than half of her costs to claim herself as a dependent. What are qualifying support expenses when claiming a dependent college student? Does that include food, clothing, housing, car, insurance, utilities? What about college education and books? My daughter is paying for most of it with help from grants and loans. The college costs is by far significant when compared to living expenses.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Support includes  food, clothing, housing, car, insurance, utilities, college  tuition, fees, computers  and books.  The money from loans is considered her supporting herself (unless you co-signed the loans)  but the scholarships are considered third party support and not her supporting herself.

If your goal is for her to be eligible for the refundable education credit, there is another requirement, in addition, to just being able to claim herself. For a student, under age 24, to get that (up to) $1000 refundable credit, she must have supported herself by working (the earned income requirement).

Even if she is away at college, your home is still considered as support not provided by her. 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 The support value of a home is the fair market rental value, divided by the number of occupants.