Can I claim myself independent?

[Lucky3883]

Can I claim myself independent?

Hi! I'm in very unusual situation and local agents don't want to answer my questions.
All of my family has green-card and we filling taxes. My father currently works in my home country and live still there, but I and my mother live here in U.S., where I currently attend college in PA. Since my father income is the only source of income he always goes as head of household and me a still a dependent because he provides all my expenses.

Now, my health insurance broker said that because I'm 25 and finishing college this may, I can get medicaid insurance if I claim myself as independent in taxes and will report 0$ income. But I'm not sure, if he is right. Can I claim myself independent with 0$ income at 25 if I still live in apartment which is leased by me and my mother all together? He suggest it because medicaid is the better option to address my health needs, but I'm worried that probably I can't claim myself as independent, if I live at this address with sharable lease and my father still provide me money to buy groceries, because I'm full time student (aka qualifying relative) 

Could you help me with advice?

Sincerely,

[Opus 17]

There are two sets of rules to be claimed as a dependent. If you are age 24 or older, the qualifying child rule no longer applies, unless you are disabled.

To qualify as a qualifying relative dependent, your parents must pay more than half your total living expenses, and you must have less than $4700 of taxable income. It does not matter where you live.   You said you do not have taxable income this year.

The support test can be a little tricky for college students. Student loans that you take out in your name count as support that you provide yourself, even though you don’t have to repay them until later.  Suppose that your parents paid $10,000 for your apartment, food, travel, entertainment, clothing, medical, and other living expenses. But you took out a $15,000 student loan for tuition. Your total financial needs were $25,000 (cost of living plus tuition) and your parents did not provide more than half.

So you will have to carefully evaluate whether your parents provided more than half your total financial support.  There is a worksheet to help you figure out the support test in publication 501.

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-501

[Critter-3]

A point of interest ... if your dad lives out of the US then he cannot file HOH since you do not live with him at all thus you are not a qualifying child.  If your mom doesn't work then your parents should have been filing a joint return (which is better then HOH) and since you live with one parent they can claim you as a dependent since you have no income.  

[Lucky3883]

Hi! So I can’t claim myself independent in the case for insurance like my broker wants? 

[Lucky3883]

Hi! Never know about that. But since I have no income, is that ok if they still provide more that my student laons? Because I mostly has merit scholarships, my laons are about 6k per year 

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

Your parents can claim you on their health insurance policy up until you turn 26.  If you have no income and your parents provide more than 1/2 of your support then they can claim you each and every year. Don't know what the insurance agent is trying to do but he cannot change the IRS tax laws.  Your parents could decide to not claim you if they wish even if you are considered a dependent for IRS purposes and you don't have to file a return since you have no reportable income.  You are only worth a max of $500 to your parents on their return if they file jointly (which they really should) so if you can get free insurance this may be worth it overall. 

[lucky212pa]

Thank you for your reply! Yes, this 500$ doesn't change anything for my parent's taxes, but I still don't quite get it. Can I claim myself as independent and file let's say just a tax return with 0 income or I can NOT claim myself independent because my parents still COULD if they even won't?

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

Can I claim myself independent?  The term independent means different things for different situations.  For income tax you are either claimed as a dependent  or you are not.  There is no such thing as "claiming independent" ... if you have no reason to file an income tax return and your parents do not claim you  then this subject is irrelevant.  If you do file a return your filing status would be single and you would indicate that you could be claimed as a dependent but you will not be claimed as a dependent when the TT program asks in the MY INFO section.