A Full Time student question to determine Dependent status

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
February 15, 2024
2 replies
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My daughter is 23 and meets all of the Dependent status requirements (living at home, provides < 50% of her own support, etc.) but she is now working on her EMT certifications (completed EMT-Basic and now taking EMT-Advanced). This program/school is a couple nights a week. It's Full Time as far as that program requirement, but unlike a college where 12 hours is typically full time, I'm not sure how to answer that question about if she is a full time student. Has anyone dealt with this scenario before? Thanks in advance.

DavidD66

Level 15

According to the IRS, a full-time student is defined as a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses that the school considers to be full-time attendance. Keep in mind that each school defines "full time" in its own way (usually in terms of the number of courses or hours).

To qualify as a student, the person must be (during some part of each of any five calendar months of the year):

A full-time student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study, and a regularly enrolled student body at the school.
OR
A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1), or by a state, county, or local government agency.

Note: The five calendar months do not have to be consecutive.

More detailed information can be found in the Chapter "Personal Exemptions and Dependents" of Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax.

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Stewart EbaughAuthor

Level 2

Thanks David. I did see something along those lines in an earlier Google search. I'm leaning toward Full-Time but the 1 piece I'm not 100% sure of is the part about the staff and student body, etc. I'll have to ask her (she's in class right now!) but I'm pretty sure she's taking the EMT program thru a local tech school that has different courses of study, so therefore they would have staff and student body. I guess if only 1 class is required at a time for that program, then that's full time!! Thanks again for your reply!