Carl
Level 15

Education

If you were a full time student for at least two semesters in the tax year, then I seriously doubt you made enough "earned" income to provide even a quarter of your support - much less half.

If you were a full time student for only one semester in the tax year, then it's still questionable. Especially if you had third party income from things like scholarships, grants, 529 distributions, money or non-monetary support from parents, etc.

Usually, when an undergraduate claims to have provided more than half of their own support for the entire year, that student can expect to be questioned on it by the IRS about 24-36 months after such tax return is accepted by the IRS. Three "golden rules" to keep in mind when dealing with taxes and the IRS:

1) You are guilty until proven innocent.

2) The burden of proof is on the accused (thats you!) and not the accuser.

3) If it's not in writing, then it *did* *not* *occur*.