@sabugs wrote:
Interesting-- thank you so much for the detailed reply!
I was a full time student in 2018, and part time in 2019. I am under 24. I earned less than 12,200 during that time. So I suppose my parents could have claimed me, but they decided not to because they were not providing more than half of the income I needed to support myself. I did receive a decent amount of scholarships, but those all went toward tuition, and not daily living expenses. I also did not live with my parents the majority of 2018 or 2019.
Would this mean I was correct in claiming I was a QC, and my parents just didn't claim me?
It sounds like you filed correctly.
Your parents were mistaken that they have to provide more than half of your support - that has not been the law for years. The current law is that *you* cannot provide more then half of your *own* support - it makes no difference where the support comes from as long as *you* did not provide it. You could make a million dollars and put it all in a bank and none of it would be support and you parents could still claim you. Being away form home to attend school counts as time lived at home.
Perhaps it is your parents that should amend and claim you for additional credits that they did not claim. See the support worksheet below.
---Tests To Be a Qualifying Child---
(Must pass ALL of these tests)
NOTE: If a child passes all of these tests he must say “yes” on his/her own tax return (if he/she files one) that another taxpayer CAN claim him/her as a dependent even if they DO NOT claim him/her)
1. The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother,stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
2. The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of 2018, (b) under age 24 at the end of 2019 and a full-time student* for any part of 5 months of 2019, or (c) any age if permanently and totally disabled and must be younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly).
3. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year (There are exceptions for temporary absences such as school, illness, business, vacation, military service).
4. The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.
See Worksheet 3-1. Worksheet for Determining Support
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17#en_US_2019_publink1000171012
5. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child.
6. The child is not filing a joint return.
7. The child must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, U.S. national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico
*A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance during some part of each of any 5 calendar months of the year.
See IRS Publication 17 for more information.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17 |
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
