My son graduated from college in may of 2013, and was my dependent until july, 2013 when he moved to his own residence and is now self-supporting. Can I claim him as a dependent for one half of the year?

[jc07]

My son graduated from college in may of 2013, and was my dependent until mid july, 2013 when he moved to his own residence and is now self-supporting. Can I claim him as a dependent for one half of the year?

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

No. It's all or none. But, you probably can claim him for the whole year, unless he is 24 or older.

If he/she was a student (under 24) for at least 5 months, and lived with you for more than half the year, and did not provide more than 1/2 his own support for the whole year, you can still claim him. Be sure he knows you're claiming him, so he doesn't claim himself. He can only be claimed once. But, he can "file taxes" without claiming his own exemption.

The real question is who should be claiming him in this "transition" year to adulthood. Bottom line is: you two have to agree on who is going to claim his exemption. Each should do their taxes both ways and see which way the family comes out best. The rule is that a child of a taxpayer can still be a ?Qualifying Child? dependent, regardless of income, if:

1. he is a full time student under 24 for at least 5 calendar months of the year (graduating in May usually means you meet the 5 month rule)

2. did not provide more than 1/2 his own support

3. lived with the parent (or was away at school) for more than half the year

So, for graduation year, it usually hinges on  "Did he provide more than 1/2 his own support for the whole year".

The support value of the home you provided is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants. IRS Publication 501 on page 20 has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

[tlgof63]

Hal--I have similar situation however my daughter never moved back home from college , after graduating in May 2019.  So, though considered to have lived with me for the 5 months, she did not live with me for 7 so really does not meet the residency portion of the dependency standards.  She, however, due to receiving lots of scholarship money, and some help from me, even after landing her dream job which began in Sept 19, did not earn and provide at least 50% of her support on her own for the year.  Due purely on the lack of coming back home for a couple of months, we thought she would NOT be my dependent for 2019, however, TT does not have a place to report that and keeps saying she is my dependent and is also having her complete the 8615 for the taxable portion of scholarship, which would not apply if she is independent (would just be part of wages as SCH, still taxable).  Is there something else we should be reporting in TT or are we incorrect in the 7 months residency?  Also, I do not want to falsely claim her since I would get tax benefits, if she is in fact not my dependent this year.  She lived 5 months away for school, then 7 months away, did not support 50% herself, (though this may be questionable, she had a lot of money in savings that helped her this past year which some came from previous year job but MOST came from taxable scholarship proceeds from previous tax year), she earned in 2019 more than 9k on her own.  So is she my qualifying child or is she independent, and if so, how can convey that to turbo tax and be correct?  Thank you

[Hal_Al]

@tlgof63  - She is not your qualifying child because of the residency rule*. All three rules must be met (support, residency, age/student status).  Since you know that, just don't enter her as a dependent, in TurboTax.

That said, it sounds like you are entering 7 months, instead of 5 months when asked how long she lived with you. 

*She is also not your qualifying relative dependent because she had more than $4200 of income.