Will the student still qualify as a dependent if...

[global77]

1) For a 19-year-old full-time college student in 2021, is there a difference if the student:

a) stays away from home for 260 days

b) stays away from home for 330 days

c) stays away from home for 365 days

Will the student still qualify as a dependent?

2) If the dependent student makes more than $12,000 income, can the parent still claim the child as dependent if the parent is the one that is supporting the child?

[xmasbaby0]

The answer to all of those questions is YES.    Living away at school is considered to be a "temporary absence" so you can still say the child lived with you.  And a full-time student under the age of 24 can be claimed as a dependent even if they made over $12,000..   The student can file his own tax return to seek a refund of federal and state tax withheld but MUST say on their return that they can be claimed as someone else's dependent.

And you did not ask---but the education credit goes on your return when you are claiming a student as a dependent.

[FangxiaL]

If your student stays away from home because he is away in college, he is considered temporarily away from home, you still can claim him as a dependent as long as you provide more than one-half of his financial support, regardless of the fact he made over $12,000 income. 

[beacon1977]

@xmasbaby0 @FangxiaL When filing in TurboTax, there is a question asking how long the child has been away from home with a selection drop down box answer that range from 0, 1,2,....to 12 months. Based on your reply, as an assumption, it would be alright and doesn't matter even if the chosen answer is 9 months or 12 months?

[xmasbaby0]

@beacon1977 You can just choose "whole year" and it will be fine.

[beacon1977]

Thank you for your reply.