My 19 year old son is enlisting in the Navy this year. should I still claim him on my return because he will have lived here 8 months of the year?

[Carl]

You probably won't qualify. Since your son will *NOT* be under the age of 19 on Dec 31 of 2019, if he has more than $4,150 of earned income then nobody will qualify to claim him as their dependent. Chances are slim that four months of military income will be less than that amount too.

[Opus 17]

It’s probably going to be $4200 or $4250 for 2019, but the principle is the same.  

[bjwbdm98]

Yes he just graduated high school this month. He turned 19 in February

[Opus 17]

So he meets the age, school and residency test, you just have to answer support.  His support includes a share of your rent or mortgage, utilities, food for the 8 months he lived in your home.  Medical expenses, clothing, entertainment, tuition, books, vehicle.  Support he provided for himself includes money he spends on his own support, whether from his earnings or savings.  If he earned money but did not spend it on himself (saved it, spent it on child support) that does not count as providing his own support.

As long as he paid less than half his own support for the whole year, you can claim him as a dependent, because he meets the other tests.

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

 If your son is a full-time student in 2019, then you can claim him as a dependent if his earnings from employment are not more than half his total support needs.  Full-time student means he attended school full-time, as defined by the school, for at least one day in at least five different months of the year.  So a graduating high school senior would be considered a full-time student for the entire year even though they graduated in May or June.   Support means the total amount of money spent on his care and upkeep, including housing, medical expenses, entertainment, tuition, and food.  If he provides more than half his own support over the entire year, then he can’t be a dependent even if he meets the full time school and residency requirements. 

If he is not a full-time student in 2019, then you probably can’t claim him as a dependent because his earnings from the Navy will be more than $4200.

[Carl]

I just checked the military pay chart. Using the lowest paygrade of E-1 less than 2 years, he'll be making $1680.83 a month base pay, which is taxable income So figuring that first month (Sept) probably won't be a full month, that comes to $5042.49 for the last full three months of 2019. So he won't qualify as a dependent on anyone's tax return.

[Carl]

Opus_17, what usually kills that "full time student" status, is that more than likely the student will have provided more than 50% of their own support for the entire tax year. It just depends on a "lot" of factors when military service is involved in the equation now-a-days. Education assistance provided by the military is considered assistance to the student. But if he's joining the military in 2019, I can guarantee you he won't be attending one single college class for at least the first twelve months, starting from the date he reports for basic training.
Now if he attended college as a full time student for the fall semester of 2019 prior to reporting for basic training that has the potential of qualifying him to be claimed as a dependent.

[Opus 17]

Per taxpayer, child lived at home 8 months.  Assuming they didn’t wash out of basic, that means child is reporting in September.  It’s entirely possible that the child was a high school senior until May, or a college freshman who completed one year ending in May, then decided to enlist instead of taking on a lot of student loan debt.  If a full time student, the parent then has to move to the support test.  

[Carl]

Forgot about the H.S. thing. If true, then the support requirement is on the student - not the parent.

[Carl]

Here's the full and complete scoop on claiming your 19 year ol as a dependent for your situation. This is assuming he graduated/graduates H.S. on or after May 1, 2019.

First, who claims the student as a dependent?

If the student:

- Is under the age of 24 on Dec 31 of the tax year and:
- Is enrolled in an undergraduate program at an accredited institution and:
- Is enrolled as a full time student for one academic semester that begins during the tax year, (each institution has their own definition of a full time student) and:
- the STUDENT did NOT provide more that 50% of the STUDENT’S own support (schollarships/grants received by the student ***do not count*** as the student providing their own support)

Then:

The parents qualify to claim the student as a dependent on the parent's tax return . Period, End of Story. But one thing I want to point out here. The parents *QUALIFY* to claim the student. The parents are *NOT* required to claim the student as a dependent. But even if they don’t, since they *qualify* to claim the student, then if the student will be filing their own tax return the student is *REQUIRED* to select the option for “I can be claimed on someone else’s return”.  To reiterate:

If the student qualifies to be claimed on the parent’s tax return, then the student *absolutely* *must* with *no* exceptions, select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's tax return",  no …matter…what.

Now, there is one thing that "might" disqualify him as your dependent. The program will ask you how many months he lived with you during the tax year. In small print it tells you to "count time away at school as having lived with  you". Now you have 4 months your son did not live with you, and it was not for "time spent away from home to attend school". So the number of months he lived with you would be less than 12 months (I'm guessing 8 months). But being that he did live with you for "more" than half the year, I would "expect" you will qualify to claim him. But I won't swear to it because of the recent tax law changes that kicked in starting with the 2018 tax year.