Can we claim our daughter's college tuition and fees on our tax return if she got married in December 2017?

[dtopolski59]

Our daughter lived with us for the whole year, but got married in December.  Since she will have to file as married this year, can we still claim her college tuition and fees on our tax return?

[MinhT · Accepted solution]

You can only claim your daughter's education expenses if you claim her as a dependent. You can claim her as a dependent if you provided more than half of her support in 2017. If she is 24 or older at the end of 2017, she has to have gross income of less than $4,050 and must have lived with you the entire year to be claimed as a dependent.

To be claimed as a dependent, she must not file a joint tax return with her husband (unless that joint tax return is filed for the sole purpose of obtaining a refund of taxes withheld). She has to file as married filing separately if she has income and indicate on her tax return that she can be claimed as a dependent by someone else.