Thank you again. I am still confused on this. (I am trying to parse the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law, if the letter of the law will allow me to claim him as dependent.) But practically speaking, as I noted in the first post, our son did NOT live with us in 2022 - EXCEPT for a week or so between two different apartment leases. For all of 2022, he kept receiving mail at our house because he knew his 2022 living arrangements were temporary, and coming back to live with us in 2022, though never his preference, was his fallback option in case something didn't work out.
This obviously isn't as clear cut as his first four years of college when he would come back home in the summer and live the whole summer with us. Summer 2022 he did not come home and he did not return home permanently at any time in 2022. The fact that he didn't come home permanently in 2022, is that the key factor? And thus I can not claim him? Being a college student under 24 still receiving some support from us in an of itself doesn't qualify him as a dependent for purposes of my EIC?
His intent now, in 2023, is to take a job after graduation out of state, so he NOW clearly has no plans of returning home. 2022 was a little gray in terms of intentions, because there were too many unknowns during the year. But as I said, in FACT he only lived with us about a week in 2022.
As you can see, I am trying hard to rationalize claiming him! I realize that you can't give official tax advice, but if you can signal whether or not you think I should give up on it, I would appreciate it. thanks! 🙂
