Questions on claiming an adult child with over $9000 in income and education expenses I paid.

[sutherlandws]

My adult daughter, 28, lives full time with us and does not pay rent or expenses (we pay those). She also went to college in 2024, but only part time, and we paid all the expenses. She made approximately $9500 in 2024 from part-time jobs, with taxes withheld.  I am trying to determine if I should (or even if I 'can') claim her as a dependent to claim the expenses (tuition, books, gas to/from classes, etc.), or if she should file her own claim.  It appears that she only had 5% pulled or so for Federal Taxes, so we are talking less than $500.

I have seen different answers as to whether I can claim her.  But how do I determine if I 'should' do so even if I can?  I can have her prepare taxes to see what refund she would get.  I have seen that I should give her the 1098-T to use, and let her look at the various tax credits, but I suspect it will have little or no financial impact on her taxes due to the low income and even lower taxes withheld. 

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Scott

[Vanessa A]

No, you cannot claim her as a dependent on your return.  Since she is 28 years old, she would have to earn less than $5,050 in order to be claimed as a dependent on any other persons return, including her parents return. The Full-Time student applies only to students under the age of 24.  Therefore, she does not qualify as a Qualifying Relative, nor a Qualifying Child. 

To claim someone as a Qualifying Relative, they must be:

• Your child ( including step children, adoptive children and foster children) or a descendent of them
• Your sibling (including half siblings) or a child of your sibling or a sibling-in-law
• Your parent or grandparents, including step parents and in laws
• Any other person that lived with you for the entire tax year
• Not a qualifying child of another taxpayer
• Someone that you provided over half of their support for during the tax year
• Has less than $5,050 in income (not counting social security)

The following criteria must be met to claim someone as a qualifying child:

• Your child (including adopted and foster children), your sibling, or a descendent of any of them.
• Age 18 or younger at the end of the tax year OR under 24 (and younger than you and your spouse) if they are a full-time student
• Lived with you for more than 6 months during the tax year
• They did not provide more than half of their own support (social security does not count)
• They did not file a joint return, unless it was to claim a refund
   

[xmasbaby0]

No, you cannot claim her as a dependent.  She is too old and made too much income.

She can file her own tax return to seek a refund of any federal or state tax withheld.

[sutherlandws]

Will she be able to claim any of the education expenses on the 1098-T, even though I paid for them?  I assume that, in order to do this, she won't be able to use the simple online filing.  Is that correct?  As I mentioned, even if she is able to claim them, I am not certain she will benefit from it due to the small amount of taxes that were withheld from her pay.

[KrisD15]

Yes.

Any education expenses paid are treated as being paid by the student (if the student is not a dependent) or the person claiming the student (if a dependent).

If you mean TurboTax Free, no, she would need to upgrade.

If the American Opportunity Tax Credit is still available for her, she could get a refund since that credit is refundable. Any times that credit was used (by you or anyone claiming her) count as part of the four-time limit. 

If she is only eligible for the Lifetime Learning Credit, that could lower (or zero-out) her tax liability, but is non-refundable. 

[xmasbaby0]

And I notice your mention of gas to drive to and from school----commuting to and from school is not deductible at all.

QUALIFIED EDUCATION EXPENSES

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/qualified-educati...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/qualified-educati...

EXAMPLES OF EDUCATION EXPENSES

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/examples-educatio...

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/am-i-eligible-to-claim-an-education-credit

[sutherlandws]

Thank you for the clarification.  As for the AOTC, my daughter attended college for 3 years (2015-2018, if I recall correctly), and my son did as well (2016-2020 for him).  I suspect that I may have taken the AOTC for them at that time, but is there a way for me to confirm this?  I filed married/jointly and our combined income was sufficiently high that it is possible we exceeded an income limit for such a credit (assuming there was an income limit). I have all my TT returns (pdf format) for those years, so I just need to know where to look.  That way, I don't recommend to my daughter that she take this if I have already taken it. 

Thanks again for your patience and help!

[KeshaH]

You can verify whether you took the AOTC in those years by looking for Form 8863 in your files. The income limit for the credit for Married Filing Jointly is $180,000. If your combined income was higher than that amount in those years, you wouldn't have been eligible for the credit.