College Students & Qualifying Child Tests: When Can Parents Claim Them as Dependents?

You don't have the option to claim your son "only as a qualifying child" but not as a dependent - they're actually part of the same thing. A qualifying child is one type of dependent you can claim on your taxes. For your son to be your qualifying child dependent, he needs to meet several tests: relationship (which he does as your son), age (which he meets as a full-time student under 24), residency (temporary absences for education count as living with you), and support (which you've met by providing over 50%). If he meets all these tests, you can claim him as your dependent, which gives you several potential tax benefits like head of household filing status, earned income credit, and potentially education credits for his college expenses. His $8,200 income doesn't disqualify him from being your dependent as a qualifying child (there's no income test for qualifying children, only for qualifying relatives).

After struggling with this exact situation with my daughter last year, I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that basically saved me thousands. I uploaded my son's financial info and my tax docs, and it analyzed everything and showed me exactly how to maximize our tax benefits by claiming him as a dependent. The tool specifically looked at the qualifying child tests and confirmed that even though my daughter had income from her campus job (around $7K), I could still claim her because I provided over half her support. It even calculated exactly how much I'd saved on my taxes vs. having her file independently.

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai that someone mentioned above. I was skeptical at first but ended up running my son's and my tax scenarios through it. The tool actually showed me that in our specific situation, it was better for him to file independently and claim his own American Opportunity Credit for his education expenses, even though he technically qualified as my dependent. It saved our family almost $1,500 combined compared to what I was planning to do! What I really liked was seeing all the specific tax rules explained alongside the calculations. Totally worth checking out if you're in the college student dependent situation.

For anyone struggling to get answers directly from the IRS on this dependent question - I wasted HOURS trying to reach someone. Finally found a service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 20 minutes. They have this demo video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c that shows how it works. I had a complicated situation with my son who's in college and working part-time, and needed to confirm whether the support test included his student loans in my name. The IRS agent was able to confirm that loans in my name count toward my support calculation, which meant I could definitely claim him.

Ok I have to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment above, I decided to try it because I was desperate to resolve this dependent situation with my daughter who's in college. I've been trying to reach the IRS for THREE WEEKS. I got connected to an IRS agent in 17 minutes (I timed it). The agent walked me through all the qualifying child tests for my college student and confirmed that my daughter's scholarship money doesn't count as her providing her own support. This was exactly the clarification I needed! Honestly wish I'd known about this months ago. Would have saved me so much stress trying to interpret the IRS publications on my own and waiting on hold for nothing.

Ok I have to eat my words about Cl

Don't forget about the other benefits of claiming your college student as a dependent! If you meet the tests, you could qualify for: 1) Head of Household status (better tax rates than single) 2) AOTC or Lifetime Learning credit for education expenses 3) Higher income limits for certain deductions 4) Possibly child tax credit if they're under 17 for part of the year But remember your child can't claim their own exemption if you claim them as a dependent. My son and I actually calculate it both ways each year to see which saves our family more in total.

The qualifying child tests can be confusing! Here's what helped me figure it out for my college kid: Relationship: Your child, stepchild, foster child, sibling, or descendant of any of these Age: Under 19 OR under 24 and full-time student for at least 5 months of the year Residency: Lived with you for more than half the year (temporary absences for education count as time living with you) Support: Child didn't provide more than half of their own support Joint Return: Child isn't filing a joint return (unless it's just to claim a refund) The tricky part for college students is calculating "support" - scholarships don't count as the student providing their own support!