Months lived with you- college graduate daughter worked at temp out of state jobs in '17. She has not changed residency and maintains home address. Are months 0 or 12?

[ms46140]

My daughter has been working at temporary jobs since graduation, all out of state.  I consider her a dependent for 2017, since she still depends on me for many finances..  As she has no permanent job, and goes from state-to-state, she has not changed residency.  So I am curious as to if I can consider her as living with me.

[Marketstar]

deleted

[Coleen3 · Accepted solution]

The IRS states specific guidelines for what constitutes a dependent.  You do not mention her age nor income, so I am offering two categories.

Qualifying Child

Relationship — the taxpayer’s child or stepchild (whether by blood or adoption), foster child, sibling or step-sibling, or a descendant of one of these.

Residence — has the same principal residence as the taxpayer for more than half the tax year. Exceptions apply, in certain cases, for children of divorced or separated parents, kidnapped children, temporary absences, and for children who were born or died during the year.

Age — must be under the age of 19 at the end of the tax year, or under the age of 24 if a full-time student for at least five months of the year, or be permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year.

Support — did not provide more than one-half of his/her own support for the year.

https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

Qualifying Relative

• Do they live with you? Your relative must live at your residence all year or be on the list of “relatives who do not live with you” in Publication 501. About 30 types of relatives are on this list.
• Do they make less than $4,050? Your relative cannot have a gross income of more than $4,050 and be claimed by you as a dependent. 
• Do you financially support them? You must provide more than half of your relative’s total support each year. 

• Are they a citizen or resident? The person must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, a U.S. resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico. Many people wonder if they can claim a foreign-exchange student who temporarily lives with them. The answer is maybe, but only if they meet this requirement.
• Are you the only person claiming them as a dependent? You can’t claim someone who takes a personal exemption for himself or claims another dependent on his own tax form.
• Are they filing a joint return? You cannot claim someone who is married and files a joint tax return. Say you support your married teen-aged son: If he files a joint return with his spouse, you can’t claim him as a dependent.

[Hal_Al]

Put 12 (probably). It depends on the definition of temporary jobs. They not only must have lasted a short time, she must of had knowledge that the job would be temporary from the beginning.

In addition, she must file a resident state return in your state. She will have to file non resident returns in the other states.

But that doesn't, alone, mean she is your dependent. How old is she and when did she graduate? If she wasn't a full time student for parts of 5 months in 2017, she cannot be your dependent.

See full dependent rules at the other answer.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Graduation year

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. 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.  Even then, you have to meet the rules. The rule is that a child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” dependent, regardless of  his 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. he did not provide more than 1/2 his own support  (scholarships are considered 3rd party support and not support provided by the student). 

3. lived with the parent (including time away at school or temporary jobs where her intent was to return to your residence) for more than half the year

So, it usually hinges on  "Did he provide more than 1/2 his own support in 2017.

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