@RK06 wrote:
To clarify: their father paying 2/3 of their college tuition and room & board does not factor into their "dependent" status for me?
Our income is too high to receive any of the education credits. When creating a tax return for them within turbo tax, my dependents can select "someone else can claim me on their tax return" and "not one will claim me in 2020", and it gives them the American Opportunity Credit. If I didn't claim them, are they allowed to do this?
First, read my longer answer on the emancipation rule.
If we ignore the emancipation rule and assume that normal rules apply then,
- your children can answer "yes" I can be claimed as a dependent and "no" the person who could claim me will not actually claim me.
- this will disqualify them from a recovery rebate but allow them to claim AOTC. (The situation where the parent's income is too high to claim the AOTC is the one time that second question--"will the person who could claim you actually claim you" makes a difference.
- as long as the children live in your home and don't provide more than half the own support, the amount of support provided by the other parent is irrelevant.
If we follow the emancipation rule, then
- your children answer "no" I can't be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer. The second question won't even come up.
- As long as each child has taxable income more than $4300, support provided by either parent is irrelevant.
