My son turned 19 in December. He is disabled, receiving SSDI. Living in an RV at VFW campground, he dropped out after summer 2019. He worked & filed. How do I list him

[sherry1704]

He filed his own taxes, so I'm guessing we can't claim him, but I want to be sure I do this right.  He was in college Spring & Summer 2019, but stayed to attempt to keep working.

[Texas Roger · Accepted solution]

Here are the requirements he must meet in order for you to claim him as a dependent:

1. The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster chld, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
2. The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year, (b) under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student, or (c) any age and permanently and totally disabled. If he was a full time student for at least one day of any 5 months during the year, he is considered a full time student. 
3. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. Temporary absences while away at college are considered living with you.
4. The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.
5. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child.
6. The child must be a U.S. citizen or U.S., Canada or Mexico resident for some portion of the year.
7. The child must be younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly) unless disabled.

If he meets these requirements, he should have indicated on his tax return that he can be claimed by someone else. If he didn't check that box on his tax return and you choose to claim him, you will have to print and mail your return to get it accepted.  You are not required to claim him as a dependent but if he meets the requirements, he should not have claimed himself and will need to prepare, print and mail an amended return form 1040X to indicate he can be claimed by someone else.

[Carl]

Note the following:

If your son was enrolled as a full time student for any one semester that started in the tax year, then he qualifies as your dependent. Attendance is *not* a requirement. Only enrollment. So if he dropped out after May 2 of 2019 and was enrolled as a full time student for the 1st semester of the tax year (which is the 2nd semester of the school year) he would qualify as your dependent. With that said:

If he qualifies as your dependent, then you the parent have a choice to claim him as your dependent or not. The student does not have a choice. The student *MUST* select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's tax return". It does not matter if you actually claimed him or not. The key work here is *QUALIFY*.

IN conclusion, you the parent have a choice. The student does "not" have a choice.