I'm trying to understand when it would be beneficial for the parent to be able to claim their child as a dependent and then not do so. It sounds like the parent can claim the dependent if the child doesn't provide more than 50% of their support from earned income plus loans. My son is right around the 50% line.
My son only spent about 3 weeks at my house last year. He lived off-campus at college for 5 months, in another state on an internship for 3 months and then in Europe on study abroad for the last 4 months of the year. His income from work and student loans was $20k. He got another $19k in scholarships. The only thing I paid for were some clothes and occasional groceries (plus covering his health insurance, at no additional cost to me).
I think we would say that I cannot claim him as a dependent and he would answer that he is not a dependent and no one can claim him as one, but answers to other questions on this forum are making me question that.
