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Hi Marvin V,

Thank you for the question and here is my opinion:

Dependent Status

For you to claim your child as a dependent, your child must be an eligible student and meet the following requirements:

• child is under age 24 at the end of the calendar year
• child is a full-time student for at least 5 months of the year
• child is enrolled in an eligible educational institution
• child does not provide more than 50% of their own annual support
• child does not file a joint return (except to claim a refund with no tax due)

NOTE: College student loans count as support by the person responsible for the loan repayment.

Based on your question, it looks like your daughter can be claimed as a dependent for 2022 if she meets all the requirements above.

American Opportunity Credit

For the purposes of you being able to claim the American Opportunity Credit, the following conditions must be met:

• The student must be enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential for at least one academic period beginning during the tax year. 
• your MAGI (modified adjusted gross income) must be $80,000 or less ($160,000 or less for joint filers) to claim the credit for the qualified expenses of an eligible student. The credit is reduced if  your MAGI exceeds those amounts. If your MAGI is greater than $90,000 ($180,000 for joint filers) you cannot claim any of the credit.
• you must not have not claimed the credit for more than 4 years for the student
• your child has not  been convicted of a federal or state felony drug offense at the end of the tax year

NOTE: The student must not have completed the first four years of post-secondary education at the beginning of the tax year– so grad students cannot take this credit. The credit is only available for qualified expenses (like-tuition, required fees and course materials). Here is a link for more information about education credits and qualified expenses.

If your concern is that the student became a graduate on April 30, 2022, which is only 4 months, the IRS says that if a student was an undergraduate student during the first part of the tax year and became a graduate student that same year, the American opportunity credit can be claimed for this student for qualified educational expenses paid during the entire tax year, if all other requirements are met by the student.

Hope this helps