Oh one other thing. If your son does in fact qualify as your dependent under the "qualifying child dependent" rules, there is no requirement for the parents to provide the student any support. Not one single penny. THe support requirement is on the student, and *ONLY* the student. That requirement reads:
"If the student did *NOT* provide more than 50% of their own support (scholarships, grants, 529 distributions, etc., *do* *not* *count* for the student providing their own support) then the parents' qualify to claim the student as a dependent on the parent's tax return.
There are only two possible ways the student can provide more than half of their own support.
1) The student had a job or was self-employed and actually earned enough money during the tax year to justify their claim to providing more than half of their own support. That earned money also has to be an amount that is "MORE" than all other third party support recevied by or provided to the student, or provided to the student's school on the student's behalf. That includes scholarships, grants and 529 distributions.
2) The student was the *PRIMARY* borrower on a *qualified* student loan, and sufficient funds were distributed to the student in the tax year to justify a claim to the student providing more than half of their own support.
