DawnC
Employee Tax Expert

Education

Yes, it includes tuition and education expenses.   Support is generally defined as what you spend on a person's food, lodging, clothing, education (including the GI bill), medical and dental care (including insurance and supplementary Medicare premiums), recreation, transportation and similar necessities.

 

Support does not include:

 - Life insurance premiums

 - Funeral expenses

 - Federal, state, or local income taxes or Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on a person's own income

 - Scholarship grants

 - Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance payments used for support of child who receives them

 

We asked you this question because based on your age, you might qualify for an education tax break called the American Opportunity credit.   Think about the people who helped pay for your living expenses. Did anyone pay for your rent or food? Consider all your living expenses and what you contributed. If you paid for more than half with your earned income, you supported yourself.  

 

If a parent or someone else paid for more than half of your living expenses, you did not support yourself. If you used unearned income or student loans to pay for most of your expenses, you did not support yourself.

 

If you're in the military, your housing allowance counts as your income. If you paid for most of your living expenses with your income and housing allowance, you supported yourself.

 

And NO - do not report her wages on your tax return.   She will file her own tax return and indicate that she can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return (if you are claiming her as a dependent on your tax return).  

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