Your girlfriend being in beauty school might affect your refund if you can claim her as a dependent.
For you to be able to claim your girlfriend as a dependent, all of the following statements must be true.
- She does not meet the requirements to be a qualifying child of her parents or anyone else.
- She lived with you for the entire year - all 365 days.
- Her gross income for the year (2019) is less than $4,200.
- You provided more than half of her total support for the year.
- She is a U.S. citizen or resident alien, or a resident of Canada or Mexico.
- She does not file a joint return with her spouse (if she is married to someone else at the end of 2019).
- No one can claim you as a dependent (whether or not they actually do claim you).
(Note to anyone else reading this: This is not a complete description of the requirements for claiming someone as a dependent. It is specific to the situation described in the question.)
If any of the statements listed above is not true, you cannot claim your girlfriend as a dependent, and nothing that she does affects your tax return or your refund.
If you can claim her as a dependent, there are two ways that it might increase your refund. The first is that claiming her as a dependent might allow you to claim the Credit for Other Dependents, which might increase your refund. The second way is that you might be able to claim the Lifetime Learning Credit for the tuition that you or she pays to the school, if she gets a Form 1098-T from the school.
There are specific requirements for both the Credit for Other Dependents and the Lifetime Learning Credit. TurboTax will ask you questions to determine whether or not you can claim either credit.
