How will not claiming a dependent affect my refund?

[shawill29]

She's a college student. We also have four other dependents. She has no insurance. We've had our state's medical assistance, but due to her being an adult (20), she had to have her own application - but she's also connected to our family application.

Because we claim her as a dependent, our income is combined with her income for her application for medical assistance. This puts her over the income limit.

We want her to have coverage, but we also want to know how not claiming her will affect our refund. (And her financial aid as well.)

Her annual income is about $6,000.

[Texas Roger]

Is she a full time student?

[shawill29]

Yes, full-time. She's a qualifying child.

[Texas Roger]

There are two types of dependents--qualifying child and qualifying relative.

If she meets the requirements listed below, you can (but are not required) to claim her as a qualifying child 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.
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.

However, if she meets these requirements and you choose not to claim her as a dependent, she cannot claim herself on her tax return.

You can find out what affect claiming her or not on your tax return has on your refund by entering her as a dependent on your return and then deleting her to see what the difference is.

If she does not meet the requirements to be a qualifying child dependent, you cannot claim her as a qualifying relative dependent because her income is more than $4050.

You would have to contact the agencies that handle medical assistance and financial aid to determine what affect claiming her as a dependent or not would have on those items.