I have a question of my own first. Why do you not qualify for any of the credits as a a parent claiming the student as a dependent on your tax return? Is it because all of his qualified education expenses were covered by scholarships and grants?
Now to answer your question - On the student's tax return select the Personal Info tab and elect to edit the primary tax filer's (which of course, is the student) information. Work it through, and on one of those screens will be a checkbox for "Someone else can claim [NAME] on their tax return". Select it, and then finish working through the rest of the screens, so your selections will "take".
Finally, in case it helps clarify for you or anyone else reading this thread...........
Take note that in IRS Pub 970 there is NO requirement for the parent to provide more than 50% of the student's support. The requirement is on the student. That requirement is, if the STUDENT provided LESS than 50% of the STUDENT'S OWN SPUPORT, then the parents qualify to claim that student as a dependent. The publication also specifically states that scholarships and grants do NOT count as the student providing their own support.
Therefore, if the student received $80,000 in scholarships, used $20,000 of it to pay qualified education expenses, and used the remaining $60,0000 to live off of for the entire year, the student did NOT provide more than 50% of the STUDENT'S own support, and the parent's qualify to claim that student as a dependent. The fact that the parent's may not have contributed one penny to the student's support during the tax year is irrelevant and does not matter one iota. THe parent's still claim the student as a dependent, and in this specific scenario, the student will report all the education stuff on the student's tax return. That means the student will pay the taxes on the excess scholarships and grants that were NOT used for qualified education expenses.
