Can I claim my college-aged kid as a qualifying child dependent or not?

You're definitely on the right track! For college students, the age test for qualifying child is extended. While normally the cutoff is 19, for full-time students it's extended to under 24 years old. So your 20-year-old daughter still meets the age test as long as she's a full-time student for at least part of 5 calendar months during the year. The other qualifying child tests you need to meet are: relationship (which you do as her parent), residency (temporary absences for education count as living with you), support (the child cannot provide more than half of their own support), and joint return (she can't be filing jointly with a spouse unless it's just to claim a refund). Based on what you've shared, your daughter makes $8,200 which likely isn't covering half of her total expenses including tuition, housing, food, etc. So it sounds like you meet all the tests to claim her as a qualifying child dependent!

I struggled with this exact situation last year with my daughter in college. After going in circles trying to figure it out myself, I finally used https://taxr.ai to analyze my situation. Saved me so much time and confusion! You upload your documents and get clear answers about your dependent status questions. Their system checked all the qualifying child tests for my college student and confirmed I could claim her, which saved me almost $2,000 on my taxes. The best part was not having to interpret all the IRS jargon. It just gave me a straight answer about claiming my college student based on our specific situation with age, support, living arrangements, etc.

I wanted to follow up about my skepticism with taxr.ai - I ended up trying it and I'm honestly impressed. I uploaded my son's tuition statements, scholarship info, and my payment records, and it clearly showed I was providing 68% of his total support despite his scholarships. It even flagged that his campus housing counts toward the residency test even though he's not living at my home during school months. Super helpful for clearing up my confusion with the qualifying child tests for college students. The tool confirmed I could claim him and explained exactly which parts of the qualifying child test were relevant to our situation. Wish I'd known about this last year when I missed claiming him and probably overpaid my taxes!

For anyone who's having trouble getting answers directly from the IRS about dependent claims - I was on hold for HOURS trying to get clarification about my college student's status. I finally tried https://claimyr.com and it was a game-changer. Got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes! You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent walked me through all the qualifying child tests for my son at college. Turns out I was overthinking it - as long as he's under 24, a full-time student for 5 months, lives with me when not at school, and I provide more than half his support, I can claim him. The agent also confirmed that his summer job income doesn't disqualify him as my dependent unless it's paying for more than half his total yearly expenses.

I need to eat my words from my previous comment. After getting nowhere with the IRS for weeks, I broke down and tried Claimyr out of desperation. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes who answered all my questions about claiming my college student. The agent confirmed that since my daughter is 22, a full-time student, and I pay for most of her expenses, she passes all the qualifying child tests even though she lives at college most of the year. Temporary absences for education still count as living with me. Also found out I can claim her education credits since I'm the one paying tuition. Saved me from making a costly mistake on my taxes and probably hours more of frustration.

Don't forget about the education credits you can get when claiming a college student! The American Opportunity Credit is worth up to $2,500 per eligible student, and you can claim it for the first 4 years of college. There's also the Lifetime Learning Credit as another option. But here's the important part - you can only claim these education credits if you also claim the student as a dependent. So if you determine your child passes all the qualifying child tests, make sure you also look into these credits. You'll need the 1098-T form from their college which shows tuition paid.

Quick question about the support test for college students - does a 529 plan distribution count as support I'm providing or support the student is providing themselves? My daughter used about $15k from her 529 plan that I've been funding for years, plus she made about $7k from her campus job.

Based on what you've described, it sounds like you should be able to claim your daughter as a qualifying child dependent! Since she's 20 and a full-time college student, she meets the extended age requirement (under 24 for students). Her dorm living counts as temporary absence for education - she's still considered to live with you. And if you're covering 75% of her expenses while she only earned $8,200, you're definitely providing more than half her support. Just make sure when you calculate total support, you include everything - tuition, room & board, books, food, medical expenses, transportation, etc. Her $8,200 job income needs to be less than half of that total amount. From what you've shared, it sounds like her total expenses are way more than $16,400, so you should be good! Don't forget to also look into the American Opportunity Tax Credit when you file - you can get up to $2,500 in education credits for her college expenses since you'll be claiming her as a dependent.

Yes, you should definitely be able to claim your daughter as a qualifying child dependent! At 20 years old and enrolled full-time, she meets the extended age test for students (under 24). The dorm living actually works in your favor - temporary absences for education are considered as still living with you for tax purposes. The key thing to focus on is the support test. Since you're covering about 75% of her expenses and she only earned $8,200, you're clearly providing more than half her support. Just make sure when you're calculating this, you include ALL expenses: tuition, room & board, books, food, medical, transportation, personal expenses, etc. Her income needs to be less than half of that total amount. One important tip: make sure your daughter knows to check the box "Someone can claim you as a dependent" if she files her own return for that $8,200 income. She can still file to get back any taxes withheld, but she can't claim her own exemption if you're claiming her. Also don't miss out on the American Opportunity Tax Credit - you could get up to $2,500 in education credits since you'll be claiming her as a dependent and paying her college expenses. That's a significant tax benefit on top of the dependent exemption!