My 29 year old daughter lives with me and has no income. I provide over 50% of her support. Can I claim her as a dependent?

[kballchurch]

TurboTax Deluxe is telling me I can't claim my 29 year old daughter as a dependent, even though she has no income. Why?

[Vanessa A]

Yes.  You would be able to claim her as a dependent. 

If she has no income and you provide over half of her support, you will need to go back and double check your answers to be sure you answered the questions correctly.  

To claim someone as a Qualifying Relative, they must be:

• Your child ( including step children, adoptive children and foster children) or a descendent of them
• Your sibling (including half siblings) or a child of your sibling or a sibling-in-law
• Your parent or grandparents, including step parents and in laws
• Any other person that lived with you for the entire tax year
• Not a qualifying child of another taxpayer
• Someone that you provided over half of their support for during the tax year
• Has less than $5,050 in income (not counting social security)

[PaulH0]

Typically, the government treats your kids to be dependent only to 18 years of age (or 26 years if the kid's still in school).  Just answering the questions in TurboTax properly may provide a different scenario.

[xmasbaby0]

@PaulH0 Sorry--you are mistaken.   There are two kinds of dependents---qualifying children and qualifying relatives.  A qualifying relative can be any age and must meet other criteria to be claimed as a dependent.

WHO CAN I CLAIM AS A DEPENDENT?

You can claim a child, relative, friend, or fiancé (etc.) as a dependent on your 2024 taxes as long as they meet the following requirements:

Qualifying child

• They're related to you.
• They aren't claimed as a dependent by someone else.
• They're a U.S. citizen, resident alien, national, or a Canadian or Mexican resident.
• They aren’t filing a joint return with their spouse.
• They're under the age of 19 (or 24 for full-time students).
• No age limit for permanently and totally disabled children.
• They lived with you for more than half the year (exceptions apply).
• They didn't provide more than half of their own support for the year.

Qualifying relative

• They don't have to be related to you (despite the name).
• They aren't claimed as a dependent by someone else.
• They're a U.S. citizen, resident alien, national, or a Canadian or Mexican resident.
• They aren’t filing a joint return with their spouse.
• They lived with you the entire year (exceptions apply).
• They made less than $5050 in 2024 (not counting Social Security)
• You provided more than half of their financial support.

When you add someone as a dependent, we'll ask a series of questions to make sure you can claim them. There may be other tax benefits you can get when you claim a dependent.

Related Information:

• What does "financially support another person" mean?

[AmyC]

While she is too old for dependent, there is no age limit when you take in others that live with you all year.

To claim someone as a Qualifying Relative, they must be:

• Your child ( including step children, adoptive children and foster children) or a descendent of them
• Your sibling (including half siblings) or a child of your sibling or a sibling-in-law
• Your parent or grandparents, including step parents and in laws
• Any other person that lived with you for the entire tax year
• Not a qualifying child of another taxpayer
• Someone that you provided over half of their support for during the tax year
• Has less than $5,050 in income (not counting social security)

@PaulH0 

[VolvoGirl]

PaulH0 is wrong.   You can claim anyone any age who lives with you that’s has less than $5,050 income.  Some Dependents don’t even have to live with you.

See IRS Publication 501 there is a table and rules starting on page 11 and page 19 Gross Income Test.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

Who can I claim as a dependent?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/credits-and-deductions/help/who-can-i-claim-as-my-dependent/00/267...