Does my child qualify for EITC if they graduated in May?

[marjaremek]

I was wondering if I can claim an EITC because of my daughter.

My daughter was 23 years old at the end of the year, but she was only a full-time student from parts of January to parts of May. I wonder if this qualifies her as part of the qualifying child test in the IRS website :

"To be a qualifying child for the EITC, your child must be...

Under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student for at least 5 months of the year and younger than you (or your spouse, if you file a joint return)"

That said, I've gotten contradictory messages. One tax form I read implied that she needed to be a student at the end of the tax year. Also, she was a student in only late January and only early May, so it was parts of five months and not five full months.

Can anyone confirm that I am eligible to use my daughter as a qualifying child? Please and thank you.

[DMarkM1 · Accepted solution]

The student definition for qualifying as a dependent child is to be a full-time student for any part of each of any five months. The months do not have to be consecutive.   So your daughter would pass the test to be a full-time student for tax year 2022.  

Here is the link to Publication 501 for reference.  

[marjaremek]

Can I also use her if she's not listed as a dependent? She's planning on filing her own return this year. Can I still use her if she's filing her own return?

[xmasbaby0]

@marjaremek If you are claiming your daughter as a dependent for 2022, make sure that she is aware of that before she prepares a tax return of her own--assuming she is now working and earning her own income.  If she can be claimed as someone else's dependent, then she must say on her own return that she can be claimed.  If you get that confused...one of your e-files will be rejected. 

[marjaremek]

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