NC - No - the $4000 was when I filed it on HER return with her as my dependent. I have now been able to get the amount she owes down to about $1200 by having her file as NOT my dependent, and saying that she provided more than half of her own support. I lose the deduction for her on my taxes, but the $3000 (that I'M going to have to end covering anyway) savings more than makes up for it. Not going to lie - I'm clearly no tax expert - hence my post here. All I am doing is answering the questions Turbo Tax asks on the her and my returns, and watching the amounts we owe change at the top. Turbo Tax is actually happier now anyway, because it said I could not claim her as a dependent in the first place - because she made $5200 at her part time job last year, and only lived with me for roughly 3 weeks out of the year....even though I specified that she did NOT pay for 50% of her living expenses.
I did some research, and my understanding was that if your child is away at school (which she obviously is) that was to be counted as living with you....but TT still said I couldn't claim her. I still don't understand why, but it ends up working out better anyway, as I mentioned above. $1200 instead of $4000 is a plus. I'm open to any further knowledge you wish to dispense, but my brain hurts from this 1098-T BS. Its usually not an issue - its just that one semester last year at the "non-accredited" school that's screwing me.
