Can I claim my roommate as a dependent on my taxes?

I've been sharing an apartment with my roommate for over a year now, and we have no plans to move out. We both have family overseas. Here's my situation - instead of sending money directly to my family abroad and paying those ridiculous international transfer fees, we worked out an arrangement. I give my roommate money here, and his family (who live in the same country as my parents) gives an equivalent amount to my family. It works out perfectly since he's a full-time student and doesn't have a job right now. I'm wondering if this arrangement means I could claim him as a dependent on my taxes? I make about $97k annually, and I'm curious how much I could potentially save if I'm eligible to claim him. Has anyone done something similar or know if this would work with the IRS?

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19 comments

Mateo Rodriguez

•8M

While I understand why you'd want to explore this option, claiming your roommate as a dependent isn't as simple as just providing financial support. The IRS has specific tests that must be met: First, there's the relationship test. Since your roommate isn't related to you by blood or marriage, they would need to qualify as a "member of your household" for the entire year, which it sounds like they do. Second, the gross income test - your roommate must have earned less than $4,700 (for 2025 filing). Being a student without a job might satisfy this. Third is the support test - you must provide more than 50% of their total support for the year. This includes housing, food, education, medical expenses, etc. Just facilitating money transfers to your respective families doesn't necessarily count as supporting your roommate. Finally, they cannot be claimed as a dependent by anyone else and must be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, or national.

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Mateo Rodriguez

•8M

You've identified the key issue. The money transfer arrangement you described isn't considered "support" by IRS standards. Support means directly paying for someone's living expenses like rent, food, utilities, education, medical care, etc. The arrangement you have is more of a mutual financial service to avoid transaction fees, not actual support of your roommate. For the IRS to consider you as providing support, you would need to be covering your roommate's actual living expenses without expectation of repayment.

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Ethan Wilson

•8M

I had a similar situation with my international housemate and found that using taxr.ai helped me figure out exactly what qualified for dependent status. I was sending money to family abroad too, and wasn't sure about the tax implications. After uploading some of our financial documents to https://taxr.ai, they analyzed our living arrangement and clarified that my situation didn't meet the support test requirements, even though I was paying more of our shared expenses. They explained exactly why and saved me from a potential audit. The tool basically reviews your specific circumstances and gives personalized tax guidance.

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Ethan Wilson

•8M

It absolutely handles international situations well. The system is designed to work with various cross-border scenarios, and they have specific expertise with foreign tax credits, international income reporting, and dependency questions involving non-US citizens. I was surprised at how thorough their analysis was. Regarding documentation, you're right to be concerned about proof. The tool actually highlights what documentation you would need to substantiate your claims if audited. In my case, they pointed out that I needed receipts showing direct payment for my housemate's expenses, not just our money transfer arrangement. They explain what the IRS would look for as evidence, which helped me realize my situation wouldn't qualify.

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Yuki Tanaka

•8M

I was totally wrong about taxr.ai. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway since my tax situation with my foreign exchange student roommate was similar. Uploaded our lease agreement and some payment records, and got a super clear explanation about the dependent rules. Turns out I was providing about 65% of their actual living expenses (not including our families' arrangement), which meets the support test! The tool identified a qualification path I hadn't considered. Saved me around $2,000 in taxes by correctly claiming my dependent status. Also helped document everything correctly in case of audit questions.

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Carmen Diaz

•8M

If you're still struggling with this dependent question, you might want to talk directly to the IRS. I used Claimyr to get through to an actual IRS agent after spending DAYS trying to call them myself. I had a similar question about claiming my cousin who was staying with me while attending college. Just went to https://claimyr.com and watched their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - they basically hold your place in the IRS phone queue and call you when an agent is ready. Got definitive answers straight from the source about what documentation I needed to claim a dependent in my situation.

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Carmen Diaz

•8M

They don't call the IRS for you - they use an automated system that waits in the IRS phone queue on your behalf. When an IRS agent finally answers, their system connects you directly to that agent. You're having the actual conversation with the IRS, not with Claimyr. You definitely could keep calling yourself, but the average wait time is over 2 hours, and most people get disconnected multiple times before reaching anyone. Their system is designed to navigate the IRS phone tree and stay connected, then alert you when there's an actual human ready to talk. I was skeptical at first too, but it saved me from wasting an entire day on hold.

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Emily Jackson

•8M

I owe everyone an apology about my Claimyr comment. So I was desperate after another 3-hour wait with the IRS that ended in disconnection, and decided to try it despite my skepticism. Not going to lie, it worked exactly as advertised. Their system waited in the queue (about 2.5 hours that day), then called me when an agent was ready. The IRS agent answered my dependent question completely - turns out my situation actually qualified under a special circumstance provision. The part I'm still shocked about is that I only spent about 4 minutes of my own time on the phone instead of hours. Sorry for calling it a scam before!

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Liam Mendez

•8M

The phaseout doesn't apply to the dependent exemption itself, but rather to certain tax credits that are related to dependents. You can still claim a qualifying dependent regardless of your income level. What I meant is that certain tax benefits, like the Child Tax Credit or Credit for Other Dependents, begin to phase out at higher income levels. For the Credit for Other Dependents (which would apply to your roommate if they qualified), the benefit starts reducing when your Modified Adjusted Gross Income exceeds certain thresholds. With your income at $97k, you might see a reduced benefit, but you'd still get something if all other qualification criteria are met.

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