My daughter is 20 and a full-time student, she lives in a dorm in Florida and works at college in the work-study program, she received her W-2 ($2,385) and 1098-T ($10,973.23), can I still claim her as a dependent? Does she have to fill out taxes on her own or do I need to report her income on my joint return? What would be the best approach?
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Yes, you can still claim her as your dependent since she did not supply more than half her own support.
Living away at school is the same as living at home for tax purposes.
Dependent taxpayers always file their own return, and claim their own income. Even though you claim the student as a dependent, you don't claim their income.
Remember they must choose "Someone else can and will claim me" in the TurboTax program.
You don't tell us the numbers on the 1098-T and that's important.
If there was more education expenses paid in 2022 than scholarship received, you might get an education credit.
If there was more scholarship, the student might need to claim part of the scholarships as income.
IRS Pub 970 talks more about education credits
Q. Can I still claim her as a dependent?
A. Yes.
There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test.
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You say there is $10,973 on the 1098-T. I assume that is the box 5 amount. Normally the difference between box 5 and box 1 is the taxable amount to the student. But there can be some adjustments.
In particular, there is a tax “loop hole” available. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American Opportunity Credit (AOC), as income on his return. That way, the parents (or himself, if he is not a dependent) can claim the tuition credit on their return. They can do this because that much tuition was no longer paid by "tax free" scholarship. You cannot do this if the school’s billing statement specifically shows the scholarships being applied to tuition or if the conditions of the grant are that it be used to pay for qualified expenses.
Using an example: Student has $10,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $8000 in box 1. At first glance he/she has $2000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the American opportunity credit. But if she reports $6000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.
Books and computers are also qualifying expenses for the AOC. So, extending the example, the student had another $1000 in expenses for those course materials, paid out of pocket, she would only need to report $5000 of taxable scholarship income, instead of $6000.
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