Has anyone found Turbo Tax's big bug in determining qualified child? My child who is a full time college student and earned $5000 is considered as non-dependent.

[macuser_22]

There is no bug.    Delete the dependent and re-enter.  The support questions asks if the *dependent* paid more than half of their *own* support, not if you supported - so the answer is NO.

Also, time away form home to attend school is counted as time lived with you so say he lived with you the whole year.

[imjaniejac]

Different bug type question:  IRS site says my 70 yr old daughter qualifies to be my dependant.  But Turbo Tax says no and I cannot determine why TT says she is not my dependant.   She lives with me full time, she has no income except her SS so she doesn't file a return, and I provide over half of her support.  She is married and spouse files married filing separately.  But TT says she doesn't qualify.

[MonikaK1]

Your older adult daughter could only qualify as an Other Dependent, in which case you could receive a credit of up to $500 against your tax liability. The credit is nonrefundable; that is, you can't use it to get additional money back if you don't owe tax.

Check your return to see whether the reason you didn't get a credit is that there was no tax owed. Otherwise, TurboTax would determine your eligibility for the credit based on your answers in the Personal Info section.

You can preview your return before filing to find out how your taxes were calculated. See here for details. 

Please see this IRS webpage for an overview of the Other Dependent Credit.

Adult children can be claimed as Other Dependents but will have to meet the gross income test unless they are totally and permanently disabled. Gross income is the total of a taxpayer's unearned and earned income. If your daughter's gross income was $4,400 or more, she can't be claimed as a dependent unless she is disabled. 

The support test must also be met. To meet the support test, a taxpayer must generally provide more than half of each dependent's total support during the calendar year. You figure whether you have provided more than half of a person's total support by comparing the amount you contributed to that person's support with the entire amount of support that person received from all sources. This includes support the person provided from the person’s own funds.

The dependent must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, U.S. resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico. 

You can’t claim someone who is claimed as a dependent on another tax return, who states that they are not able to be claimed as a dependent on their own tax return (takes a personal exemption for himself) or someone who claims another person as a dependent on their own tax form. 

You can't claim someone who's married and files a joint tax return. This rule doesn’t apply if the dependent files a joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or any estimated tax paid.

Please see this TurboTax tips article for more information about claiming dependents.