Can I claim my girlfriend as a dependent?She lived with me all year.she goes to school part time and only worked 3months out of the whole year

[SweetieJean]

How much was her 2017 income? Any scholarships or grants?

[victorcaz]

Around 3000 and she did get a grant

[JulieH1 · Accepted solution]

If she falls into this criteria, you can claim her.  Don't be tricked by the term relative, it can be an "unrelated" person also.

Under the qualifying relative rules:

• Not qualify as somebody else’s qualifying child or qualifying relative
• Live with you the entire year (365 days) or be one of these:
• Your child, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant of any of them
• Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, or stepsister or a descendant of any of them
• Your father, mother, grandparent, or stepparent, but not a foster parent
• Your son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law
• Your uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece
• Earn less than $4,050
• Receive more than half of his or her support for the year from you

To claim a dependent, these must also be true:

• He or she can only have filed jointly with his or her spouse to claim a refund of the taxes withheld. Also, if he or she were to have filed separately from his or her spouse, neither would have owed taxes.
• The dependent is one of these:
• U.S. citizen
• U.S. resident alien
• U.S. national
• Resident of Canada or Mexico

You can’t qualify as a dependent on someone else’s return. This is true even if the other person doesn’t claim you on his or her return.

[victorcaz]

Yes she did live with me all year and I paid for all her costs, supplies etc.would I have to put her w2 form joined with mine or is it done separately?

[JulieH1]

No. You cannot include her income with yours since you are not married.  She will have to file her own return if she made more than $6350 from an employer or more than $400 from self employment income.  If she files she needs to mark that "someone else can claim me on their return."

[SweetieJean]

and some of her Grant may be taxable.

[SweetieJean]

"Earn less than $4,050" should say "income of less than 4050"