Can we claim child as dependent if he works 5 months?

[luol2016]

My child was full time student in university, graduated in May last year.

He starts to work since August, we supported him before that.

[MarilynG1]

Yes, if he was a full-time student for five months of the year, you can most likely claim him as your dependent.

As a student, his time away from home is considered a temporary absence, so that he can be considered to have lived with you all year.

The main criteria being that he didn't provide over 50% of his own support.  Here's more info on What does Financially Support Mean? and for Claiming a Dependent. 

[Edited 3/18/2024 | 12:08 pm]

[Hal_Al]

Q. Can we claim child as dependent if he works 5 months and was full time student in university, graduated in May last year?

A. Yes, if he was under 24 on 12-31-23 and continued to live with you, after graduation, through at least July 2.

There's one more requirement: he must not have provided more than half his own support for the entire year.  

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:

1. 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
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support.  
3. 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 himself.

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.

Scholarships are ignored in the support calculation.  Expenses paid by student loans are considered support provided by the student, unless the loan was in the parent's name or the parent co-signed the loan.

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

[luol2016]

Thanks for your reply.

My son graduated at beginning of May, less than 5 months as full time student in 2023, then he took 3 months break at home.

We supported him till end of July, he has no income before starting work.

[Hal_Al]

If you supported him for 7 months, including college, and he only supported himself for 5 months, then it's highly likely that you can claim him as a Qualifying Child (QC) dependent. If you're confident of that without doing the support calculations, then you should claim him.  But, there is no rule that says supporting him  for more than half the year automatically means that you provided more than half the total support for the whole year. 

The college months are usually particularly expensive. But, for example, if you paid the spring college bill in December 2022, then those months might be "lite".