topic My daughter did not go to school full time last year so we will not be claiming her a dependent. How much will this change the amount of taxes owed? in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

My daughter did not go to school full time last year so we will not be claiming her a dependent. How much will this change the amount of taxes owed?

potters91 — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:32 GMT

How old is she? Is her income more than $4,050?

SweetieJean — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:34 GMT

How old is she? Is her income more than $4,050?

and is "last year" 2016 or 2017?

SweetieJean — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:35 GMT

and is "last year" 2016 or 2017?

Just because your daughter did not attend school, is not...

Carl — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:36 GMT

Just because your daughter did not attend school, is not a reason you would not qualify to claim her as a dependent. Since she was not a full time student for any one semester that started in the tax year, the age requirement and other requirements just change. SO:
If your daughter was *OVER* the age of 18 on Dec 31 of the tax year and:
You provided more than 50% of her support for the tax year and:
She did not earn more than $4050 of earned income for the tax year and:
She will not be filing a joint tax return with anyone else and:
She will not be claimed as a dependent on anyone else's tax return and
SHe will not be claiming any dependents of her own
THEN
She qualifies as your dependent.

She’s 22. She’s made more than $4050. 2017 tax year.

potters91 — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:37 GMT

She’s 22. She’s made more than $4050. 2017 tax year.

There are a lot of assumptions floating around here. For...

Opus 17 — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:38 GMT

There are a lot of assumptions floating around here. For example, even if she attended school full-time for only one semester (part of all of five different months) that would be enough to count as a full-time student for dependent status.

Assuming that she does not qualify as a dependent, the first thing you lose is her dependent exemption which is a $4050 tax deduction. That will translate into between $800 and $1600 of smaller refund or additional tax depending on your tax bracket. Most middle-class tax payers will be in the 25% bracket, so losing the deduction will lower your refund or increase your tax owed by about $1000.

Then, if you benefited from any education tax credits last year, such as the lifetime learning credit or the American opportunity credit, you are obviously not getting those credits this year and the absence of those credits will also affect your tax owed or your refund. You would have to check your own tax return for last year to see whether you got those benefits.

If you are paying student loan interest for a previous college term, you can continue to take the student loan interest deduction even though the student is no longer your dependent. You can take the student loan interest deduction as long as the loan is in your name, you are making the payments, and the student was your dependent at the time the loan was made.

I think that is about all for the tax consequences of no longer claiming a adult child as a dependent.

EIC may be different, and State tax consequences may be d...

SweetieJean — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:39 GMT

EIC may be different, and State tax consequences may be different.

Something I just remembered too, and I perused pub 970 to...

Carl — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:40 GMT

Something I just remembered too, and I perused pub 970 to see if it had be changed. As far as I can tell, no changes. But basically, one only has to be "enrolled" as a full time student for any one semester that starts in the tax year. From what I see, there is no requirement for actual physical attendance. My guess would be that this is to accommodate students enrolled in online classes for distance learning.

You can use this tool to estimate the effect: https://tur...

Hal_Al — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:21:43 GMT

You can use this tool to estimate the effect: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1

Use your 2016 income, but don't enter a dependent. compare the result to your 2016 return, with the dependent. If you claimed an education credit, in 2016, that will result in a bigger difference than just losing a dependent