I am an international student and I live, with my wife and son with our parents in law while studying, and this last year while working on OPT. Are we their dependents?

[KurtL1]

The "Parents" can claim you and your family as dependents if:

• If you all lived with the "Parents" for the entire year;
• You or your wife earned less than $4,200;
• The parents paid over 1/2 of your support; and
• No one else can claim you or your family on a return.

[javisar]

Thanks for your response. So, we live with them. Therefore, we don't have to pay a rent, but I worked like the middle of 2019, earning something more than 10.000 during the year. Can they still claim us as dependent?, they made it the last year, when we didn't earn anything.

[JotikaT2]

No.

Since you made more than $10,000 during 2019, then they cannot claim you.

As mentioned by KAlehnhardt2 above, you cannot earn more than $4,200 during the year.

[Carl]

As mentioned by KAlehnhardt2 above, you cannot earn more than $4,200 during the year.

That just is not true in every situation and it's 99% possible it's definitely not true for this specific situation. But we don't have enough facts to provide a useful answer at all really.

 For starters, it's not known if "our parents" are your parents in a foreign country, indicating that "maybe" you are a foreign national. married to to U.S. citizen. Maybe you live with "her" parents in the U.S., and "you" are not a U.S. citizen? Your post lacks clarity on that front. Basically, if you are a U.S. citizen or legal resident alien here (meaning you have an SSN) or are considered a resident alien because you met the requirements for that, then if you the student are:

 - Under the age of 24 on Dec 31 of the tax year and;

- You did not provide more than 50% of your own support for the entire year. (Scholarships, grants, 529 distributions, gifts from Aunt Mary, etc. *do* *not* *count* for the student providing their own support.)

- were enrolled in an accredited institution as a full time student for any one semester that started in the tax year and;

- Were enrolled in a course of study that will lead to a degree or credentialed certification and;

- Will not be filing a joint return (if married) or claiming any dependents, then;

Your parents qualify to claim you as a dependent on their tax return.  It does not matter if your parents actually claim you or not. If you just "QUALIFY" to be claimed as a dependent on your parent's tax return, then you must select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's tax return" when you complete your own tax return.

Notes:

The student's earnings do not matter. The student could earn a million dollars and still qualify to be claimed as a dependent on their parent's tax return. That's not an exaggeration either.

The support requirement is on the student, and only the student. There is absolutely no requirement for the parents to provide any support to the student. Not one single penny.

For you, with only $10,000 of earned income for the tax year, there is absolutely no way possible that you provided more than 50% of your own support.  If you will be filing a tax return with your spouse as Married Filing Joint, or if you will be claiming any dependents on your tax return, then your parent's flat out can not claim you as a dependent *with* *no* *exceptions*.

Finally, if you are not a U.S. Citizen or resident alien, or "considered" a resident alien for tax purposes, then not only can you *Not* use TurboTax to complete and file your tax return with, but a completely different set of rules and laws applies to your situation as a student. You may want to look at sprintax (www.sprintax.com) for filing your U.S. non-resident tax return and may need to seek tax advice from a tax professional that is well versed with non-resident student's attending college in the U.S. There's a fair number of them within a short distance of almost all college campuses.