topic Re: Full-Time Student Question in Education

Full-Time Student Question

user17702626089 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 03:42:08 GMT

According to other answers listed here, for 2025 if my daughter lived with me, is a full-time student at college, and under the age of 24, the income limit for earnings don't apply. My daughter was full-time, was 22 on Dec 31, lived with me all year, and did not pay for more than half the cost of her support. But she earned more than $5,200. Turbo Tax is saying she doesn't qualify as my dependent. Was the other answer incorrect? Or did I miss something when I read the answer?

Re: Full-Time Student Question

MindyB — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 03:55:50 GMT

No, the answer isn't incorrect and you did not miss anything. Your daughter qualifies as a dependent based on the information you provided. Usually, the reason for this issue is something omitted in the interview about the dependent.

Revisit the entry in the "My Info, Your household" section. Make sure all the interview screens have been completed accurately:

Navigate to My Info, Your household, select your daughter and revisit.
Choose "My child", continue and be sure her name, date of birth and proper citizenship is complete.
Continue, and answer the question about living arrangements and parents.
Continue, and answer any less common situations. Here, make sure "was a full-time student in 2025" is checked.
Lastly, enter the child's SSN and be sure that "Not valid for employment is printed..." is NOT checked.

Here is some more detailed information: Rules for Claiming Dependents on Taxes

Re: Full-Time Student Question

user17702626089 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 04:53:25 GMT

Thank you for the response, Mindy. I'm thinking my copy of Turbo Tax is tweaked. Not only will it not state she is a dependent, but my other daughter is permanently disabled and qualifies me for Head of Household status. It wants to put me as Single filing status. Both sets of dependent information have been correctly entered. I'm not quite sure what to do for the moment. This is stressing me out.

Re: Full-Time Student Question

user17702626089 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 05:08:26 GMT

I didn't save the file and started over. I (again) brought forward my 2024 return and started from the beginning. This time, it properly identified my kids as dependents and a filing status of HH. I feel so much better!

Re: Full-Time Student Question

VolvoGirl — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 06:35:21 GMT

You could have just deleted the kids from My Info and then enter them again. That would have cleared something out and given you all the right questions.

Re: Full-Time Student Question

user17702626089 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 06:38:19 GMT

I actually did try that before closing out and starting again. Something must not have loaded properly, and I wasn't that far into it. So starting over seemed like the next logical step.