Could Someone Please Help Me Out With Some Tax Info?

Question

could someone explain to me or send me a link that shows that my father can legally claim me on his taxes if I am a full time student. I went to IRS. gov and I am not familiar with how this works. I am a fulltime student and I am 20 years old and my father claims me therefore on my fasfa I am a dependent. However, he does not support me in college. Where do I find info on this?

Answer 1

Do you work or do you have any earned/unearned income (even work study income)? As mentioned above, your financial aid (Student Loan) is not included as income since you're going to repay it in the future.

Generally, below 4 tests will qualify a child to be a dependent.

Qualifying Children - to be claimed as a qualifying child, the person must meet four criteria:

Relationship — the person must be your child, step child, adopted child, foster child, brother or sister, or a descendant of one of these (for example, a grandchild or nephew).

Residence — for more than half the year, the person must have the same residence as you do (Remember! if you're a student & living temporary away from home, you considered as lived home).

Age — the person must be
under age 19 at the end of the year, or
under age 24 and a be a full-time student for at least five months out of the year, or any age and totally and permanently disabled.

Support — the person did not provide more than half of his or her own support during the year.

For more info, please click below link & check under "Personal Exemptions and Dependents"

Answer 2

For a 20-year-old fulltime student (this changes at age 24, unless you are disabled), one parent can claim you if and only if all of the following are true (otherwise, neither can):

1. You are a citizen or national of the United States, a resident of the United States, or a resident of Canada or Mexico.
2. Either (a) you have not filed a joint return with a spouse, (b) you are not married, or (c) you filed a joint return as a claim for refund, but neither the you nor your spouse was required to file a return, and no liability would have existed for either the you or your spouse if each had filed a separate return.
3. Either (a) your gross income for the year was less than $3,300 and the parent provided more than half of the your total support for the year, or (b) you lived with the parent for more than half of the year, excluding temporary absences, such as for school, and you did not provide more than half of your own support for the year.

Note that I am not addressing the question of which parent can claim you. Even if all of the above are true, it is possible that only your mother (and not your father) can claim you.

Answer 3

Technically, your father can claim you as a dependent if he provides more than 50 percent of your support. Your question cannot be answered because you provide too little information. Do you earn any income? How much? Where does your support come from? Do you file a tax return? Do you claim yourself as an exemption?

If most of the answers are NO, then it is in your interest to have your father claim you. Even if you have some income it may be best if he claims you. the idea is to minimize the tax burden. If claiming yourself saves you $100 in tax but his claiming you saves him $200, then it would be best if he claims you and pays you the $100 you would have saved. That still leaves $100 less for the government.

Answer 4

Your question is clearly answered in the 2007 IRS Pub 17:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf

Read the table on Page 38. Your father does not have to support you in order to claim you. As long as you do not provide over half of your own support (and a scholarship does not count as support provided by you), then your father may claim you.

Answer 5

Go read IRS publication 501. Pay special attention to the support worksheet.

If *you* supported yourself, you claim yourself.
If you did not support yourself, then he can probably claim you.

When you calculate the support test, since you appear to be "temporarily away at school" don't forget to include your share of his housing cost. Do include any expenses that you are paying from student loans that you will pay back. Do not include any scholarships.

Answer 6

If you provide over half of your own support, then he can't claim you no matter how old you are. Support includes college expenses, so if you earn money and use it for your college expenses, that would be considered as part of your own contribution to your support.