Hi,
I am trying to find out if my college student child qualifies as a dependent or not.
He is studying and living far from us and paying his own rent, utilities, food etc., we didn't directly pay for anything during the school year. We did gift him money via bank transfer and he worked too. The school tuition was paid via an 529 account set on his name directly to school.
So to the question of him providing his own support I am confused because, from what I read, the tuition part can be attributed as his own support. Rest of his income is a mix of wages and gifted money. So it can be interpreted either way as technically he did provide more than 50% of his support since he paid for everything, but then again, we did send him money.
I found nothing about the provenance of money for self-support, other than gifting children appreciated stock can be interpreted that way and I don‘t see a difference in stock gifting vs. direct money gifting. (Would in that case only the capital gains/dividend/interest be considered income, but not the gifted cost basis?)
Also hypothetically if he would have had enough savings at the beginning of the year and not require any money for us, can he still be claimed as a dependent?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
