@divanailsalonsr- said "I noticed that when I answer that she pays more than Half of her expense. She is partially dependent on my return and my refund was over 4k. When I said no that she didnt pay for half of her expenses. She becomes my dependent and my refund came down to 500."
Sorry, that doesn't make sense. You must be doing something wrong.
As to the question " In order to answer yes to the paying more than Half of her expenses? Does she need to make 12k in w2 or less or more? It's complicated. But, there's a simple answer: Just say no to the support question. Scholarship is not counted as support for the dependent support test. So unless she has a high paying job and/or large investment income, she did not pay more than half her own support.
There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test.
A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:
- He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
- He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are excluded from the support calculation
- He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year
So, it doesn't matter how much he earned. What matters is how much he spent on support. Money he put into savings does not count as support he spent on him self.
The support value of the home, provided by the parent, is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants.
The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf
Note that the requirement is not that you(the taxpayer) provided more than half his support. The requirement is only that the child did not provide more than half his own support.
Self support https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/re-i-m-not-sure-what-to-put-when-it-ask-did-i-sup...
